Meaning & use
stridents
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“stridents” is a form of “strident”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meaning
nounpluraltechnicalspecialist
In phonetics, speech sounds made with a noisy, hissing airflow, such as /s/, /z/, /ʃ/ and /ʒ/.
Grammar: Used as a plural noun: stridents are a class of sounds. The singular strident is rare outside the adjective use.
Patterns
- stridents are...
- a class of stridents
The teacher explained that /s/ and /z/ are stridents because the air hisses through a narrow gap.
In this language, stridents at the ends of words are often dropped in casual speech.
Word forms
| singular | strident |
|---|
Common combinations
- voiceless stridents
- Voiceless stridents like /s/ and /ʃ/ have no vibration of the vocal cords.
- a class of stridents
- English has a small class of stridents that learners often find difficult.
- strident sounds
- Stricent sounds can be hard to pronounce for speakers of some languages.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sibilants
- Sibilants are a type of strident made with a hissing quality; not all stridents are sibilants, so the terms overlap but are not identical.
- fricatives
- Fricatives are sounds made by forcing air through a narrow opening; stridents are a noisier subset of fricatives.
Word family
- strident adjective
- Loud and harsh; also used for a forceful, unpleasantly loud way of speaking.
- stridency noun
- The quality of being loud and harsh, especially of a voice or sound.
- stridently adverb
- In a loud and harsh way.
Commonly confused: stridents or strident?
stridents vs strident
The adjective strident means 'loud and harsh' and is far more common than the technical plural noun stridents.
Practice
In phonetics, which of these sounds is a strident?
Choose one answer.
/s/ is produced with a noisy, hissing airflow, so it is a strident. /m/, /t/ and /l/ do not have that hissing quality.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “stridents”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.