STRIDENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does strident mean? 

• STRIDENT (adjective)
  The adjective STRIDENT has 4 senses:

1. conspicuously and offensively loud; given to vehement outcry

2. of speech sounds produced by forcing air through a constricted passage (as 'f', 's', 'z', or 'th' in both 'thin' and 'then')

3. being sharply insistent on being heard

4. unpleasantly loud and harsh

  Familiarity information: STRIDENT used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STRIDENT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Conspicuously and offensively loud; given to vehement outcry

Synonyms:

blatant; clamant; clamorous; strident; vociferous

Context example:

a vociferous mob

Similar:

noisy (full of or characterized by loud and nonmusical sounds)

Derivation:

stridence; stridency (having the timbre of a loud high-pitched sound)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of speech sounds produced by forcing air through a constricted passage (as 'f', 's', 'z', or 'th' in both 'thin' and 'then')

Synonyms:

continuant; fricative; sibilant; spirant; strident

Similar:

soft ((of speech sounds); produced with the back of the tongue raised toward the hard palate; characterized by a hissing or hushing sound (as 's' and 'sh'))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Being sharply insistent on being heard

Synonyms:

shrill; strident

Context example:

shrill criticism

Similar:

imperative (requiring attention or action)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Unpleasantly loud and harsh

Synonyms:

raucous; strident

Similar:

cacophonic; cacophonous (having an unpleasant sound)

Derivation:

stridence (having the timbre of a loud high-pitched sound)

 Context examples 

If you border on becoming strident, your efforts may backfire.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

I was surprised, therefore, when, one morning in June, as I sat reading the British Medical Journal after breakfast, I heard a ring at the bell, followed by the high, somewhat strident tones of my old companion’s voice.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Company was already well-nigh through the village; but, as the knight and his squires closed up upon them, they heard the clamor of a strident voice, followed by a roar of deep-chested laughter from the ranks of the archers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As he listened to her, there rang in the ears of his memory the harsh cries of barbarian women and of hags, and, in lesser degrees of harshness, the strident voices of working women and of the girls of his own class.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Oh, nothing, nothing, said he, and strolled back to where the voices of the contending men of science rose in a prolonged duet, the high, strident note of Summerlee rising and falling to the sonorous bass of Challenger.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Once a white-necked sea eagle soared screaming high over the traveller's head, and again a flock of brown bustards popped up from among the bracken, and blundered away in their clumsy fashion, half running, half flying, with strident cry and whirr of wings.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the park through the soft twilight but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)