|  spirant 
 
 a continuant consonant produced by breath moving against a narrowing of the vocal tract
 • Syn:
 fricative consonant, fricative
 • Hypernyms:
 continuant consonant, continuant
 • Hyponyms:
 sibilant, sibilant consonant
 
 of speech sounds produced by forcing air through a constricted passage (as 'f', 's', 'z', or 'th' in both 'thin' and 'then')
 • Syn:
 fricative, continuant, sibilant, strident
 • Similar to:
 soft
 • Derivationally related forms:
 sibilant (for: sibilant), sibilate (for: sibilant), continuance (for: continuant)
 
 
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