A Snake's Hiss Is Made Without a Voice
A hiss is a sharp sibilant sound. Snakes produce it by forcing air, not by vocalising.
A hiss is a sharp sibilant sound like a prolonged S. A snake makes one without any vocal apparatus: air is forced rapidly past a small flap in the windpipe, producing noise but no pitch. The result is almost pure white noise, which is why a hiss is impossible to locate precisely by ear. The word is imitative and Old English, and hissing a performer as disapproval is recorded from the 1600s.
- A sibilant sound. *A loud hiss.*
- To show disapproval. *The crowd hissed.*
- A snake's warning. *The snake hissed.*
- Static noise. *Tape hiss.*
- Imitative. *Old English.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | hiss | Hissing. |
| Noun | hiss | A hiss. |
| Past | hissed | Hissed. |
| Adjective | hissing | Hissing. |
| Related | sibilant | Sibilant. |
- Steam hissed from the valve.Sound.
- The audience hissed.Disapproval.
- Snakes have no voice box.Fact.
Why a hiss is hard to locate
- Ears locate sound by comparing timing and volume between them
- Those cues work best on sounds with clear pitch and rhythm
- A hiss is broadband noise with neither
- So the brain gets little to compare
- The same principle makes some alarms deliberately easy to find
Middle English, imitative of the sound, recorded from the 1300s.
How does a snake hiss without a voice?
By forcing air rapidly past a small flap in the windpipe, which makes noise without producing any pitch.
Why is a hiss hard to locate?
It is broadband noise without clear pitch or rhythm, so the ear has few cues to compare between left and right.