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

[Latin sībilāns, sībilant-, present participle of sībilāre, to hiss.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

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Examples

  • He spoke in sibilant English mocking my clumsy Arabic.

    I Was Sold on the Slave Block « Official Harry Harrison News Blog 2007

  • 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

  • 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

  • Although an striking feature of Castilian Spanish and other variants of Spanish, respectively....have perserved the "sibilant" -s

    languagehat.com: ITALIAN DIALECTS. 2005

  • 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

  • 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_,

    Myths and Legends of China 1909

  • They are low and insinuating, a kind of sibilant utterance:

    Tentation de saint Antoine. English Gustave Flaubert 1850

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

Comments

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  • Is "sex" sibilant?

    August 14, 2008