Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of, characterized by, or producing a hissing sound like that of (s) or (sh).
- noun A sibilant speech sound, such as English (s), (sh), (z), or (zh).
from The Century Dictionary.
- Hissing; making or having a hissing sound: as, s and z are sibilant letters.
- noun An alphabetic sound that is uttered with hissing, as s and z, and sh and zh (in azure, etc.), also
ch (tsh) and j (dzh).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Making a hissing sound; uttered with a hissing sound; hissing.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Characterized by a
hissing sound such as the "s" or "sh" in sash or surge. - noun phonetics A
hissing sound such as the 's' or 'sh' in 'sash' or 'surge'.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective of speech sounds produced by forcing air through a constricted passage (as `f', `s', `z', or `th' in both `thin' and `then')
- noun a consonant characterized by a hissing sound (like s or sh)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He spoke in sibilant English mocking my clumsy Arabic.
I Was Sold on the Slave Block « Official Harry Harrison News Blog 2007
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P; and air from the mouth be forced between them; the W sibilant is produced, as pronounced by the Germans, and by some of the inferiour people of London, and ought to have an appropriated character as thus [*].
Note XV 1803
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If the point of the tongue be placed between the teeth, and air from the mouth be forced between them, the Th sibilant is produced, as in thigh, and should have a proper character, as [*].
Note XV 1803
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Although an striking feature of Castilian Spanish and other variants of Spanish, respectively....have perserved the "sibilant" -s
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S: The nineteenth letter of the alphabet, which is called a sibilant, because it makes a hissing sound like a goose.
The Silly Syclopedia Noah [pseud.] Lott
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A slight aspirate preceding and modifying the sibilant, which is, however, the stronger of the two consonants; _e.g. hsing_ = _hissing_ without the first _i_,
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They are low and insinuating, a kind of sibilant utterance:
Tentation de saint Antoine. English Gustave Flaubert 1850
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The Hebrew text suggests that the difference consisted in the different articulation of the "sibilant": although the conquered heard sh, they could produce only s.
OUPblog 2008
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The Hebrew text suggests that the difference consisted in the different articulation of the "sibilant": although the conquered heard sh, they could produce only s.
OUPblog 2008
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The Hebrew text suggests that the difference consisted in the different articulation of the "sibilant": although the conquered heard sh, they could produce only s.
OUPblog 2008
super-logos commented on the word sibilant
Is "sex" sibilant?
August 14, 2008