sibilant

English

WOTD – 10 January 2009

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪb.ɪ.lənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Adjective

sibilant (comparative more sibilant, superlative most sibilant)

1. Characterized by a hissing or hushing sound such as the s or sh in sack or shack.
   • 1960Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     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

• Armenian: շչական (hy) (ščʻakan), սուլական (hy) (sulakan)
• Azerbaijani: sibilyant
• Bulgarian: съскащ (bg) (sǎskašt), шипящ (šipjašt)
• Czech: sykavý
• Finnish: suhiseva, sihisevä, sihauttava
• French: sifflant (fr) m, sifflante (fr) f
• Greek: συριστικός (el) (syristikós)
• Irish: siosach
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: hihī
• Portuguese: sibilante (pt)
• Russian: свистя́щий (ru) (svistjáščij) ("whistling", for "s", "z"), шипя́щий (ru) (šipjáščij) ("sizzling", for "sh", "zh"), свистя́ще-шипя́щий (svistjášče-šipjáščij)
• Spanish: sibilante
• Swedish: väsande (sv)

Noun

sibilant (plural sibilants)

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

   Synonym: groove fricative

   Hypernym: fricative

   • 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

Translations

phonetics: a hissing sound

• Armenian: շչական (hy) (ščʻakan), սուլական (hy) (sulakan)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 絲絲聲／丝丝声, 咝咝声 (zh) (sīsīshēng), 嘶擦音 (sīcāyīn)

• Czech: sykavka f
• Danish: sibilant c, hvislelyd c
• Dutch: sisklank (nl) c, sibilant c
• Finnish: sibilantti (fi), suhuäänne
• French: sifflante (fr) f
• German: Zischlaut (de) m, Sibilans f, Sibilant (de) m
• Irish: siosach m
• Japanese: 歯音 (しおん, shion), 歯擦音 (しさつおん, shisatsuon)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: hihī
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hvislelyd m, sibilant (no) m

  Nynorsk: kvislelyd m, sibilant m

• Portuguese: sibilante (pt) f
• Russian: сибиля́нт (ru) m (sibiljánt), свистящий (ru) m (svistjaščij) (звук, for "s", "z"), шипя́щий (ru) m (šipjáščij) (звук, for "sh", "zh"), свистя́ще-шипя́щий m (svistjášče-šipjáščij) (звук)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сибѝлант m, пи̏скавац m

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

• Spanish: sibilante f
• Swedish: väsljud n, sibilant (sv) c

Related terms

• sibilance
• sibilancy
• sibilate
• sibilation

Anagrams

• astilbin

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Danish

Noun

sibilant

1. (phonetics) sibilant

Declension

Declension of sibilant

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	sibilant	sibilanten	sibilanter	sibilanterne
genitive	sibilants	sibilantens	sibilanters	sibilanternes

Synonyms

• hvislelyd

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Dutch

Pronunciation

Hyphenation: si‧bi‧lant

Noun

sibilant c (plural sibilanten, diminutive sibilantje n)

1. sibilant

Synonyms

• sisklank

---

Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) sībilant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of sībilō

---

Romanian

Etymology

From French sibilant.

Adjective

sibilant m or n (feminine singular sibilantă, masculine plural sibilanți, feminine and neuter plural sibilante)

1. sibilant

Declension

Declension of sibilant

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	sibilant		sibilantă	sibilanți	sibilante
	definite	sibilantul		sibilanta	sibilanții	sibilantele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	sibilant		sibilante	sibilanți	sibilante
	definite	sibilantului		sibilantei	sibilanților	sibilantelor

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Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /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

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French

Adjective

sibilant (feminine sibilante, masculine plural sibilants, feminine plural sibilantes)

1. sibilant; hissing

Further reading

• “sibilant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.