Word.ws English Dictionary

spirant

UK/ˈspaɪəɹənt/US/ˈspaɪɹənt/

spirant noun: a non-sibilant fricative.

Noun

spirant (plural spirants)

  1. (dated) A non-sibilant fricative.
    • Spirant consonants are those in which the mouth passage is simply narrowed without any actual contact.1888, Joseph Wright, An Old High German Primer
    • The raising of the stem indicated the opening of the consonant to a ‘spirant’ […]1955, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix E
    Synonyms:
    fricative

spirant meaning in Tamil

spirant in Tamil

உரசொலி

Synonyms of spirant

Forms of spirant

pluralspirants

Origin of spirant

From Latin spirans, present participle of spīrō (“to blow”). Compare inspire, expire, respiration, etc.

Words formed from spirant

Phrases with spirant

Questions about spirant

What does spirant mean?
Spirant means a non-sibilant fricative.
What is spirant in Tamil?
Spirant in Tamil is உரசொலி. See Spirant meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is spirant?
Spirant is a noun.
How do you pronounce spirant?
Spirant is pronounced /ˈspaɪəɹənt/ (UK).
What is the plural of spirant?
The plural of spirant is spirants.

Words near spirant in the dictionary

  1. spiran
  2. spirangle
  3. spirangles
  4. spiranic
  5. spirans
  6. spirant
  7. spirant mutation
  8. spirant mutations
  9. spirantal
  10. spiranthy
  11. spirantic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spirant (page history and authors); spirant (Tamil 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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Cite this entry: “spirant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spirant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.