Gasping
Part of speech: verb
Definition: To draw in the breath suddenly, as if from a shock.
Breathless
Part of speech: adjective
Definition: Having difficulty breathing; gasping.That makes one hold one's breath (with excitement etc.).Not breathing; apparently dead.Having no wind; still, calm or airless.
Example sentence: Peter Fleming was a famous English traveler, explorer and adventurer, whose non-fiction books were hugely successful. My father owned signed copies of all of them - he and Peter Fleming had become acquainted over some detail of set design at the Korda film studio in Shepperton - and I had read each of them with breathless adolescent excitement.