Meanings
- A dialect of Spanish, a variant of the Spanish language that is spoken through whistling. This variant originates from La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain.
For a long time, the initiative of teaching Silbo in school remained unique in the world. In 2009, after receiving intense regional and national support, the Spanish whistled form of La Gomera was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
2015, Julien Meyer, Whistled Languages: A Worldwide Inquiry on Human Whistled Speech, Springer, →ISBN, page 65Synonyms: Silbo Gomero
Synonyms & antonyms
proper nounA dialect of Spanish, a variant of the Spanish language that is spoken through whistling. This variant originates from La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain.
Origin
- Spanishsilbo gomero
- Spanishel silbo
- EnglishSilbo
From Spanish el silbo, from Spanish silbo gomero (literally “Gomeran whistling”), from Spanish silbo (“whistling”) + gomero (“Gomeran; pertaining to Gomero, Canary Islands”).
More words from Spanish
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Spanish el silbo, silbo gomero
- el silboTranslations
- silbo gomeroTranslations
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
Silbo. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Silbo
“Silbo.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Silbo. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Silbo,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Silbo.
Source: Silbo on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.