- fricative, sibilant, spirant - of speech sounds produced by forcing air through a constricted passage (as `f', `s', `z', or `th' in both `thin' and `then')
Antonym: hard (indirect, via soft)
- fricative consonant, fricative, spirant - a continuant consonant produced by breath moving against a narrowing of the vocal tract
--1 is a kind of continuant consonant, continuant