shibboleth
/ˈʃɪbəlɛθ/
shibboleth noun: a particular pronunciation or custom that is regarded as distinguishing members of a group from non-members, especially when used as a test.
Noun
shibboleth (plural shibboleths)
- A particular pronunciation or custom that is regarded as distinguishing members of a group from non-members, especially when used as a test.
- In recent times, the correct treatment of initial h in speech has come to be regarded as a kind of shibboleth of social position.1933, “H”, in Oxford English Dictionary
- He also declares that "th" is the veritable English shibboleth. He advises those Germans who cannot pronounce the sound correctly to pronounce it like "d," the symbol which he regularly uses for "th" in his lessons.1922, Pennsylvania-German Society, The Pennsylvania-German Society, page 110
- A common or longstanding belief, custom, or catchphrase associated with a particular group, especially one with little current meaning or truth.
- It's about time we abandoned the bourgeois shibboleth that earning money makes you a better person.
- The teacher says he must stick largely to the old methods and cling to the old shibboleths or he will naturally get bad results in the examination. Only much practice along the lines the examination is going to follow will insure a [success].1924, Modern Languages, page 112
shibboleth meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Vietnamese
shibboleth in Tamil
- வெற்றுக்கூற்று, தற்காலத்துக்கு ஒவ்வாத, பொருளற்ற நம்பிக்கை, கூற்று, குறிப்பிட்ட இனம், மக்களுக்கென்ற தனிப்பட்ட உடை
shibboleth in Urdu
- امتحان
shibboleth in Bengali
- কোনো গোষ্ঠীর পরিচায়ক শব্দ, প্রথা, অপ্রচলিত ধারণা
shibboleth in Vietnamese
- a word, pronunciation, or custom, distinguishing members of a group, especially as a test
- síp-bô-lét
Examples of shibboleth in a sentence
- I pose the iconoclastic suggestion that even at this late stage in B.R. dieselisation, rigid standardisation might be a shibboleth.1964 May, R. & M., “What chance for an outstanding prototype?”, in Modern Railways, page 319:
- The truth is that I found success by stumbling off alone in a direction most people thought was a dead end, breaking all the 1990s shibboleths about children’s books in the process.2019 January 11, Tina Jordan, quoting J. K. Rowling, “Some Dos and Don’ts From Famous Writers”, in New York Times:
- And many [younger conservatives] see reflexive solidarity with Israel as a shibboleth that belongs in the past, to be replaced by a more isolationalist foreign policy.2026 May 22, Simon Montlake, “The GOP has been a pro-Israel party for decades. Is that changing”, in The Christian Science Monitor, Boston...
Forms of shibboleth
| plural | shibboleths |
|---|---|
| alternative Early Modern (obsolete) | schiboleth |
| alternative Early Modern (obsolete) | schibboleth |
| alternative Late Modern (obsolete) | shiboleth |
Origin of shibboleth
Learned borrowing from Biblical Hebrew שִׁבֹּלֶת /שיבולת (šibbṓleṯ, “ear [of wheat] or stream, torrent”). Doublet of sebboleth and Middle English sebolech, both from Late Latin sebboleth in the Vulgate.
Words formed from shibboleth
Questions about shibboleth
- What does shibboleth mean?
- Shibboleth means a particular pronunciation or custom that is regarded as distinguishing members of a group from non-members, especially when used as a test.
- What is shibboleth in Tamil?
- Shibboleth in Tamil is வெற்றுக்கூற்று, தற்காலத்துக்கு ஒவ்வாத, பொருளற்ற நம்பிக்கை. See Shibboleth meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use shibboleth in a sentence?
- I pose the iconoclastic suggestion that even at this late stage in B.R. dieselisation, rigid standardisation might be a shibboleth.
- What part of speech is shibboleth?
- Shibboleth is a noun.
- How do you pronounce shibboleth?
- Shibboleth is pronounced /ˈʃɪbəlɛθ/.
- What is the plural of shibboleth?
- The plural of shibboleth is shibboleths.
Words near shibboleth in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shibboleth (page history and authors); shibboleth (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); shibboleth (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); shibboleth (Bengali Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-shibboleth.wav.
Cite this entry: “shibboleth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shibboleth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.