sibilant

English

WOTD – 10 January 2009    

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA: /ˈsɪb.ɪ.lənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

sibilant (comparative more sibilant, superlative most sibilant)

1. Characterized by a hissing sound such as the "s" or "sh" in sash or surge.
   • 1960: Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird

     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."

Derived terms

• sibilantly

Translations

characterized by a hissing sound

• Czech: sykavý (cs)
• Finnish: suhiseva (fi), sihisevä (fi), sihauttava (fi)
• French: sifflant (fr) m, sifflante (fr) f
• Russian: свистящий (ru) (svistjáščij) ("whistling", for "s", "z"), шипящий (ru) (šipjáščij) ("sizzling", for "sh", "zh"), свистяще-шипящий (ru) (svistjášče-šipjáščij)

• Spanish: sibilante (es)
• Swedish: väsande (sv)

Noun

sibilant (plural sibilants)

1. (phonetics) A hissing sound such as the 's' or 'sh' in 'sash' or 'surge'.
   • 1955: H. A. Gleason, An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics, page 194, section 14.7

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

Derived terms

• shibilant

Synonyms

• (phonetics): groove fricative

Translations

phonetics: a hissing sound

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 絲絲聲 (cmn), 咝咝声 (cmn) (sīsīshēng), 嘶擦音 (cmn) (sīcāyīn)

• Czech: sykavka (cs) f
• Dutch: sisklank (nl) c, sibilant (nl) c
• Finnish: sibilantti (fi), suhuäänne (fi)
• French: sifflant (fr) m
• German: Zischlaut (de) m
• Irish: siosach (ga) m
• Japanese: 歯音 (ja) (しおん, shion), 歯擦音 (ja) (しさつおん, shisatsuon)

• Russian: сибилянт (ru) (sibiljánt) m, свистящий (ru) (svistjaščij) m (звук, for "s", "z"), шипящий (ru) (šipjáščij) m (звук, for "sh", "zh"), свистяще-шипящий (ru) (svistjášče-šipjáščij) m (звук)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сибѝлант (sh) m, пи̏скавац (sh) m

  Roman: sibìlant (sh) m, pȉskavac (sh) m

• Spanish: sibilante (es) f
• Swedish: väsljud (sv) n

Related terms

• sibilance
• sibilancy
• sibilate
• sibilation

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Dutch

Noun

sibilant c (^??? please provide the plural!, ^??? please provide the diminutive!)

1. sibilant

Synonyms

• sisklank

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Latin

Verb

sībilant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of sībilō

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Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sibǐlant/
• Hyphenation: si‧bi‧lant

Noun

sibìlant m (Cyrillic spelling сибѝлант)

1. (phonetics) sibilant

Declension

    declension of sibilant

	singular	plural
nominative	sibìlant	sibilanti
genitive	sibilanta	sibìlanātā
dative	sibilantu	sibilantima
accusative	sibilant	sibilante
vocative	sibilante	sibilanti
locative	sibilantu	sibilantima
instrumental	sibilantom	sibilantima

Synonyms

• (sibilant): pȉskavac