"Spirit" occurs 505 times in 456 verses in the KJV. The English word is translated from the Hebrew ruach and the Greek pnuema. Both of these words can also mean "breath" or "wind."
All three uses can be seen in the Flood account.
Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
Genesis 7:15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
Genesis 8:1 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;
In the New Testament, two of the uses can be seen in the same verse of John's Gospel.
John 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
However, in the New Testament, the word "breath" is never translated from pneuma but instead from the word pnoe (Acts 2:2; 17:25).
In what situations is "breath" or "wind" a better translation choice then "spirit"? What is the reason that these words meaning "wind" and "breath" get the English word "spirit" as a final definition?