1. consonant sounds produced by forcing air through a narrow opening in the mouth, creating friction
Usage: linguistics; phonetics

Examples

• The sounds /f/, /v/, /s/, and /z/ are common spirants in English.
• Students of phonetics learn to identify spirants by their characteristic friction noise.
• The linguist explained how spirants differ from stops in their method of articulation.
• Many languages contain spirants that don’t exist in English.
• The pronunciation guide showed which letters represent spirants in the word.
• Spirants are produced when air flows through a constricted passage in the vocal tract.