— stridence, stridency , n. — stridently , adv.
/struyd"nt/ , adj.
1. making or having a harsh sound; grating; creaking: strident insects; strident hinges.
2. having a shrill, irritating quality or character: a strident tone in his writings.
3. Ling. (in distinctive feature analysis) characterized acoustically by noise of relatively high intensity, as sibilants, labiodental and uvular fricatives, and most affricates.
[ 1650-60; strident- (s. of stridens ), prp. of stridere to make a harsh noise; see -ENT ]