featherlight

[ feth-er-lahyt ]

adjective

1. extremely light; lights; light lights as a feather.

Word History and Origins

Origin of featherlight¹

First recorded in 1830–40; feather + light ²

Example Sentences

Tommy Richman’s TikTok smash “Million Dollar Baby” was one of the year’s inescapable singles — a brash, funky and featherlight falsetto that rattled out of cars windows and phone speakers for months.

From Los Angeles Times

Lazily chilled-out, the Hammond organ is played with a featherlight touch, and the drums are gently brushed.

From BBC

The featherlight membranes, thinner than a human hair, can be inserted with minimally invasive surgery and contain no moving parts.

From Science Daily

I am enamored with how featherlight and shatteringly crisp it bakes up; the way it is so delicate, yet quite forgiving to work with; and how it can be slathered with healthy olive oil to make an endless variety of better-for-you sweet or savory pastries.

From Washington Post

On Friday night, Bard SummerScape unveiled a rare staging of “The Silent Woman” at Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College that went some way toward reconciling the featherlight subject and its fraught historical context.

From New York Times