Word.ws English Dictionary

sibilancy

/ˈsɪbɪlənsi/

sibilancy noun: the property or state of being sibilant.

Noun

sibilancy (usually uncountable, plural sibilancies)

  1. (usually) The property or state of being sibilant.
    • How do such words differ from hilltop, townend, candlelight, rushlight, cityman, and the like, where no double s can be made the scapegoat? Certainly Milton would not have avoided them for their sibilancy, he who wrote […] verses that hiss like Medusa's head in wrath.1876, James Russell Lowell, “Milton”, in Among My Books. Second Series., Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 280
    Synonyms:
    sibilance

Synonyms of sibilancy

Forms of sibilancy

pluralsibilancies

Origin of sibilancy

From sibilant + -ancy.

Questions about sibilancy

What does sibilancy mean?
Sibilancy means the property or state of being sibilant.
What part of speech is sibilancy?
Sibilancy is a noun.
How do you pronounce sibilancy?
Sibilancy is pronounced /ˈsɪbɪlənsi/.
What is the plural of sibilancy?
The plural of sibilancy is sibilancies.

Words near sibilancy in the dictionary

  1. sibia
  2. sibias
  3. sibilance
  4. sibilances
  5. sibilancies
  6. sibilancy
  7. sibilant
  8. sibilant rhonchi
  9. sibilant rhonchus
  10. sibilantly
  11. sibilants

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sibilancy (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.

Last updated:

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