shrill
So high and piercing that it hurts your ears.
shrill in a sentence
- The referee's shrill whistle cut through the noise of the crowd.
- The smoke alarm gave a shrill beep, so high and piercing that we all covered our ears.
Try an 11+ style question
Verbal reasoning papers often ask about a word like this.
Which word is closest in meaning to shrill?
- Agentle
- Blow
- Csoft
- Dpiercing
Show the answer
D: piercing. The other three mean the opposite of shrill.
Which word is most nearly opposite in meaning to shrill?
- Ahigh
- Bsoft
- Csharp
- Dpiercing
Show the answer
B: soft. The other three mean nearly the same as shrill.
Words that mean something similar
piercing, high, sharp
Words that mean the opposite
soft, low, gentle
More words about speech & sound
- squabble: To argue noisily about something small and unimportant.
- stammer: To speak with pauses and repeated sounds, finding it hard to get words out.
- summarise: To give the main points of something in a short way.
- summon: To officially call someone to come to you.
- taunt: To tease someone in a cruel way to upset them.
- terse: Using very few words, often in an unfriendly way.
- tumult: A loud, confused noise made by an excited crowd.
- unison: Doing or saying something all together at exactly the same time.
More words to explore
Sitting the 11+ in Kent, Medway or Buckinghamshire?
Plain-English guides to each test, from the councils’ own pages: Kent Test · Medway Test · Bucks Secondary Transfer Test