zephyr

Word family

• Zephyrus
  proper nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Zephyr is the most literary of these words and carries a poetic, old-world feel — you will most often meet it in novels, poems, or formal descriptive prose. Breeze is its everyday twin: use breeze when you are speaking or writing casually about a light wind. Waft is narrower in scope; it describes a gentle movement of air that usually brings a smell along with it (a waft of coffee, a waft of perfume). Gust, by contrast, is a sudden rush of wind — stronger and briefer than a zephyr, and never pleasant by default. Draft (American English) or draught (British English) refers to an unwelcome current of cold air indoors, the opposite of a refreshing outdoor zephyr.

Common collocations

Etymology

Zephyr comes from Zephyrus, the name of the Greek god of the west wind. In Greek mythology, Zephyrus was the gentlest of the four wind gods and was associated with spring and the arrival of warmer weather. The word passed into Latin as 'zephyrus', then into Old French, and finally into English during the late Middle Ages. Poets and writers have long favoured it for its elegant, classical sound.