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.

   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."

   1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC

   1 more example

   She sat a little higher than I, and whenever in her solitary ecstasy she was led to kiss me, her head would bend with a sleepy, soft, drooping movement that was almost woeful, and her bare knees caught and compressed my wrist, and slackened again; and her quivering mouth, distorted by the acridity of some mysterious potion, with a sibilant intake of breath came near to my face.

   1955 September 15, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, Paris: The Olympia Press […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: hissing, hissy, sibilatory, sibilous

plural sibilants

1. human sciencesA consonant having a hissing or hushing sound such as the s or sh in sack or shack.

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

   1955, H. A. Gleason, An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics, page 194, section 14.7

   Synonyms: groove fricative