sibilance

S1I1B3I1L1A1N1C3E1

noun

The quality of being sibilant: a hissing quality.

RareScrabble 13

Meanings

nounsibilance (countable and uncountable, plural sibilances)

plural sibilances

  1. countableuncountableThe quality of being sibilant: a hissing quality.

    Work to control the sibilance of your s sounds.

    2009, Jean Ann Wright, M. J. Lallo, Voice-Over for Animation, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 28
    4 more examples

    The Pet Shop Boys are yet another synth-pop duo, albeit one that is not quite out of the closet. […] In past interviews, however, they [the Pet Shop Boys] have referred to their sound as "specifically gay disco," and their lyrics have that certain queenly something that lead singer Neil Tennant sings with an adorable sibilance.

    1990 December 23, Christopher Wittke, “Pop Goes 1990”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 23, page 9

    The following exercises help combat sibilance, plosives, lazy tongue, and mouth problems.

    2000, Elaine A. Clark, There's Money Where Your Mouth Is: An Insider's Guide to a Career in Voice-Overs, Second Edition, Back Stage Books, →ISBN, page 24

    A string of words beginning with ‘s’ will cause sibilance.

    2006, Barbara Alysen, Electronic Reporter: Broadcast Journalism in Australia, Second Edition, University of New south Wales Press, →ISBN, page 118

    Most often sending the vocal through a de-esser will either eliminate the sibilance or greatly reduce its sound.

    2012, Michael Zager, Music Production: For Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students, Second Edition, Scarecrow Press, →ISBN, page 277

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see

Origin

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

sibilance. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sibilance

MLA

“sibilance.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sibilance. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sibilance,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sibilance.

Source: sibilance on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.