Sibilant

//ˈsɪb.ɪ.lənt// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A consonant having a hissing or hushing sound such as the s or sh in sack or shack.

    "Groove fricatives all have more or less of an [s]-like quality, and are for this reason sometimes called sibilants."

  2. 2
    a consonant characterized by a hissing sound (like s or sh) wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Characterized by a hissing or hushing sound such as the s or sh in sack or shack.

    "She had a curious habit of prefacing everything she said with a soft sibilant sound. "S-s-s Grace," she said, "it's just like I was telling Brother Hutson the other day. 'S-s-s Brother Hutson,' I said, 'looks like we're fighting a losing battle, a losing battle.' I said.""

Adjective
  1. 1
    of speech sounds produced by forcing air through a constricted passage (as ‘f’, ‘s’, ‘z’, or ‘th’ in both ‘thin’ and ‘then’) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
continuantcontinuanteffervescentfricativegroove fricativegroove fricative

Example

More examples

"Ashkenazi Hebrew uses a sibilant fricative where Yemenite Hebrew has a non-sibilant fricative."

Etymology

From Latin sībilāns, present active participle of sībilō (“I hiss”).

Related phrases

sibilant rhonchus

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.