lisp
/lɪsp/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.00 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To pronounce the consonant ‘s’ imperfectly; to give ‘s’ and ‘z’ the sounds of ‘th’ (/θ/, /ð/). This is a speech impediment common among children.
Intransitive verb
verb
To speak with imperfect articulation; to mispronounce, such as a child learning to talk.
Intransitive verb
verb
To speak with reserve or concealment; to utter timidly or confidentially.
Archaic; Intransitive verb
name
A functional programming language with a distinctive parenthesized syntax, much used in artificial intelligence.
name
Alternative form of Lisp.
Example Sentences
- "He used to have a terrible lisp before going to a speech therapist."
- "It's common for children to speak with a lisp."
- "Until the age of 10, Dominic would lisp, but this was fixed by a speech therapist."
- "As yet a Child, nor yet a Fool to Fame, / I liſp'd in Numbers, for the Numbers came."
- "Lest when my lisping, guilty tongue should halt."
- "But the fashion spreads deeper and wider; the village is infected and the village green; Amelias and Claras sweep your rooms and cook your dinners, gentle Sophias milk your cows, and if you ask a pretty smiling girl at a cottage door to tell you her name, the rosy lips lisp out Caroline."
Etymology
From Middle English lispen, lipsen, wlispen, from Old English *wlispian (attested in āwlyspian (“to lisp”)), from Old English wlisp, wlips (“stammering, lisping”, adjective), from Proto-Germanic *wlispaz (“lisping”), from Proto-Indo-European *wlis-, *wleys- (“rod”), from *wel- (“to turn, roll”). Cognate with Middle Low German wlispen (“to lisp”), Dutch lispen (“to lisp”), German lispeln (“to lisp”), Danish læspe (“to lisp”), Swedish läspa (“to lisp”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: lispen, *wlispian, wlisp, *wlispaz, *wlis-