1. a phonetic process in which a consonant sound, especially a stop or affricate, becomes or is pronounced as a sibilant (a hissing sound like /s/ or /ʃ/).
Usage: linguistics, phonetics

Examples

• The assibilation of /t/ to /s/ is common in certain English dialects.
• Linguists study assibilation as a type of sound change that occurs across languages.
• In some Romance languages, assibilation affected the pronunciation of Latin consonants.
• The historical assibilation of dental stops created the sibilant sounds we hear in modern Spanish.
• Assibilation is one mechanism by which languages evolve their phonetic systems over time.