seseo
Spanish, noun
seseo is a Spanish masculine noun meaning “an accent in Spanish and Galician that pronounces z, and c before e or i, as /s/ rather than /θ/” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first-person singular present indicative of sesear. With an accent, seseó is a different word: “third-person singular preterite indicative of sesear”. The Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) defines it as “Acción o efecto de sesear; no hacer distinción en español o gallego entre los fonemas /θ/ y /s/…”.
What does seseo mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinean accent in Spanish and Galician that pronounces z, and c before e or i, as /s/ rather than /θ/
verb
- 1
first-person singular present indicative of sesear
verb
- 1
third-person singular preterite indicative of sesear
Source: English Wiktionary, Spanish section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Spanish dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Acción o efecto de sesear; no hacer distinción en español o gallego entre los fonemas /θ/ y /s/, convirtiéndose ambos en /s/ (fricativa alveolar sorda). Pronunciar las grafías z, ce y ci con el fonema sibilante /s/.
The definition in the Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), in Spanish.
Source: Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of seseo
- seseos plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is seseo in Spanish?
seseo appears about once in every 7 million words in written Spanish.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).