Ashkenazi Hebrew uses a sibilant fricative where Yemenite Hebrew has a non-sibilant fricative.
Source: tatoeba (8115449)
Sibilant
//ˈsɪb.ɪ.lənt//
Synonyms for "sibilant" (16 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (4)
Adjective(2 words)
Strong matches (4)
Related words (8)
Noun(1 words)
Adjective(2 words)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
3 entriesMore specific
10 entriesSynonyms
2 entriesRelated terms
5 entriesderived
4 entrieshas context
1 entriesis a
1 entriesrelated to
5 entriessimilar
1 entriesTranslations
67 translations across 27 languages.
Arabic
2 entries- صَفِيرِيّ adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- حَرْفُ صَفِير noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Armenian
4 entries- շչական adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- սուլական adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- շչական noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
- սուլական noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Azerbaijani
1 entries- sibilyant adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
Bulgarian
2 entries- съскащ adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- шипящ adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
Chinese Mandarin
3 entries- 咝咝声 noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
- 嘶擦音 noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
- 絲絲聲 /丝丝声 noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Czech
2 entries- sykavý adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- sykavka noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Danish
3 entries- hvæsende adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- hvislelyd noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
- sibilant noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Dutch
2 entries- sibilant noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
- sisklank noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Finnish
4 entries- sihauttava adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- sihisevä adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- suhiseva adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- sibilantti noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
French
3 entries- sifflant adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- sifflante adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- sifflante noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Galician
2 entries- sibilante adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- sibilante noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
German
3 entries- Sibilans noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
- Sibilant noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
- Zischlaut noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Greek
1 entries- συριστικός adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
Irish
2 entries- siosach adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- siosach noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Japanese
2 entries- 歯擦音 noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
- 歯音 noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Māori
2 entries- hihī adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- hihī noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Norwegian Bokmål
2 entries- hvislelyd noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
- sibilant noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Norwegian Nynorsk
2 entries- kvislelyd noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
- sibilant noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Portuguese
2 entries- sibilante adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- sibilante noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Romanian
1 entries- sibilant adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
Russian
4 entries- свистя́ще-шипя́щий adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- свистя́щий adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- шипя́щий adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- свистя́ще-шипя́щий noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Serbo-Croatian
4 entries- pȉskavac noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
- sibìlant noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
- пи̏скавац noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
- сибѝлант noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Slovene
1 entries- sičnik noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Spanish
2 entries- sibilante adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- sibilante noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Swedish
3 entries- väsande adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- sibilant noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
- väsljud noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Ukrainian
2 entries- свистячий adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- шиплячий adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
Welsh
2 entries- sisiol adj (characterized by a hissing sound)
- sisiolyn noun (phonetics: a hissing sound)
Sample sentences
4 total sentences available.
He had trouble pronouncing the sibilant letters.
Source: tatoeba (8978106)
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."
Source: wiktionary
Groove fricatives all have more or less of an [s]-like quality, and are for this reason sometimes called sibilants.
Source: wiktionary
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.