Word.ws English Dictionary

hiss

/hɪs/

hiss noun: a sibilant sound, such as that made by a snake or escaping steam; an unvoiced fricative.

Noun

hiss (plural hisses)

  1. A sibilant sound, such as that made by a snake or escaping steam; an unvoiced fricative.
    • Their music frightful as the serpent’s hiss,
      And boding screech-owls make the concert full!1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • […] over head the dismal hiss
      Of fiery Darts in flaming volies flew,1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
  2. An expression of disapproval made using such a sound.
    • […] in open disputations ye haue bene openly conuict, ye haue bene openly driuen out of the schole with hisses […]1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC, book V, Part 2, The Oration of Byshop Brookes in closing...
    • The Actors, in the midst of an innocent old Play, are often startled with unexpected Claps or Hisses; and do not know whether they have been talking like good Subjects, or have spoken Treason.1716, Joseph Addison, The Free-Holder, 16 April, 1716, London: D. Midwinter and J. Tonson, pp. 203-204

Verb

hiss (third-person singular simple present hisses, present participle hissing, simple past and past participle hissed)

  1. (intransitive) To make a hiss, a sibilant sound of air escaping.
    • As I started to poke it, the snake hissed at me.
    • The poor cat hissed as it backed away from the approaching man.
    Synonyms:
    fizzle, fizz
  2. (transitive) To call someone by hissing.
    • I stepped out of my tent in Marrakech one night to get a bar of candy and caught your dose of clap when that Wac I never even saw before hissed me into the bushes.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 172
  3. (intransitive, transitive) To condemn or express contempt (for someone or something) by hissing.
    • The crowd booed and hissed her off the stage.
    • If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and displeased them, as they use to do the players in the theatre, I am no true man.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  4. (transitive) To utter (something) with a hissing sound.
    • Lies oft o’erthrown with ceaseless Venom spread,
      Still hiss out Scandal from their Hydra Head,1761, Robert Lloyd, An Epistle to C. Churchill, London: William Flexney, page 7
    • the long-necked geese of the world that are ever hissing dispraise […]1855, Alfred Tennyson, “Maud”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 20
  5. (intransitive) To move with a hissing sound.
    • The arrow hissed through the air.
    • The Troops of Troy recede with sudden Fear,
      While the swift Javelin hiss’d along in Air.1718, Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, London: Bernard Lintott, Volume 4, Book 15, lines 690-691, p. 192
  6. (transitive) To emit or eject (something) with a hissing sound.
    • The man in white pyjamas hissed soda into his glass.1938, Graham Greene, Brighton Rock, London: Heinemann, Part 2, Chapter 1, p. 72
    • The radiator bubbled and hissed steam.1939, John Steinbeck, chapter 26, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York: Viking, page 500
  7. (transitive) To whisper, especially angrily or urgently.
    • "Are you quite sure of it," she hissed into his ear, "Mr Fang, Junior?"1881, Elim Henry D'Avigdor, Across Country, Bradbury, Agnew
    • "Oh please," she said, "don't let him see us!" I wouldn't let her push me away. "Stop!" she hissed. "He'll see us!"1968, James A. Emanuel, Theodore L. Gross, Dark symphony, →ISBN

hiss meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

hiss in Hindi

to hiss , make a whizzing sound
सरसराना sarsarāna

hiss in Tamil

sound made by a snake, cat, escaping steam, etc.
சீறு cīṟu
to make a hissing sound
சீறு cīṟu

hiss in Urdu

سنسنانا

hiss in Bengali

শিসধ্বনি, সাপের ফোঁস ফোঁস শব্দ, অবজ্ঞাসূচক ধ্বনি
More languagesFewer languages
hiss in Telugu
బుస busa, బుసకొట్టు busakoṭṭu
hiss in Malayalam
ചീറ്റുക, ചീറുക, ഊതുക, സീൽക്കാരം പുറപ്പെടുവിക്കുക
hiss in Kannada
ಸೀವರಿಸು, ಬುಸುಗುಟ್ಟು
hiss in Sinhala
පිඹිනවා piᵐbinawā
hiss in Tagalog
higishis, ngishis, humigishis
hiss in Arabic
أَزِيز ʔazīz, فَحِيح faḥīḥ, هَفَّ haffa, فَحَّ faḥḥa
hiss in Malay
desis, mendesis
hiss in Indonesian
desis, mendesis, berdesis

Examples of hiss in a sentence

  • […] his form was soon covered over by the twilight as his footsteps mixed in with the low hiss of the leafy trees.1874, Thomas Hardy, “Blame—Fury”, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 13:
  • Her voice was a hiss, like gas escaping from a bottle of soda.1951, William Styron, chapter 6, in Lie Down in Darkness, New York: Vintage, published 1992, page 292:
  • The man came back, and said something in a lower voice, to which the other replied, “she sleeps,” or Ellena was deceived by the hissing consonants of some other words.1797, Ann Ward Radcliffe, chapter 7, in The Italian, volume II, London: T. Cadell Jun. & W. Davies, page 236
  • The frying pan hissed and sizzled as Ishvar gently slid ping-pong sized balls into the glistening oil.1995, Rohinton Mistry, chapter 10, in A Fine Balance, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, page 487:

All 40 example sentences with hiss

Synonyms of hiss

Forms of hiss

Noun
pluralhisses
Verb
third-person singular presenthisses
present participlehissing
past participlehissed
pasthissed

Past tense of hiss: hissed

Plural of hiss: hisses

Origin of hiss

From Middle English hissen, probably of onomatopoeic origin (compare Arabic هَسْهَسَ (hashasa)). Compare Middle Dutch hissen, hisschen (“to chase away, shoo”), Middle Low German hissen (“to chase, hound, incite”).

Words formed from hiss

Words that rhyme with hiss

22 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hiss

What does hiss mean?
Hiss means a sibilant sound, such as that made by a snake or escaping steam; an unvoiced fricative.
What is hiss in Hindi?
Hiss in Hindi is सरसराना (sarsarāna). See Hiss meaning in Hindi.
How do you use hiss in a sentence?
[…] his form was soon covered over by the twilight as his footsteps mixed in with the low hiss of the leafy trees.
What part of speech is hiss?
Hiss can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce hiss?
Hiss is pronounced /hɪs/.
What is the plural of hiss?
The plural of hiss is hisses.

Words near hiss in the dictionary

  1. hispines
  2. hispinin
  3. hispis
  4. hispoid
  5. hispoids
  6. hiss
  7. hiss-and-tell
  8. hissable
  9. Hissarlik
  10. hissed
  11. hisself

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hiss (page history and authors); सरसराना (Hindi) (page history and authors); hiss (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Hiss (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hiss (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); hiss (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); පිඹිනවා (Sinhala) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-hiss.ogg.

Cite this entry: “hiss.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hiss. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.