sibilant
/ˈsɪb.ɪ.lənt/
"sibilant" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sibilant” is uncommon English (frequency #93,150 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #93,150
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Characterized by a hissing or hushing sound such as the s or sh in sack or shack.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sibilant · sibilant · English
sibilant · rank #93,150 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #93,150
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH shud
Nearest frequency peer: shud (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “sibilant”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- shinny
shinny
6,857 corpus weight
- shorties
shorties
6,854 corpus weight
- shud
shud
6,852 corpus weight
- sibilant
sibilant
6,851 corpus weight
- Siebold
Siebold
6,849 corpus weight
- signoria
signoria
6,847 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “sibilant” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sibilant |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈsɪb.ɪ.lənt/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #93,150 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sibilant” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sibilant is uncommon English at frequency #93,150 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈsɪb.ɪ.lənt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Characterized by a hissing or hushing sound such as the s or sh in sack or shack.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for sibilant, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin sībilāns, present active participle of sībilō (“I hiss”). The correct English form is sibilant, spelled S-I-B-I-L-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1Characterized by a hissing or hushing sound such as the s or sh in sack or shack.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how sibilant appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
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."
Etymology
From Latin sībilāns, present active participle of sībilō (“I hiss”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sibilant", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).