Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Slither |
SlitherVerb1. To pass or move unobtrusively or smoothly: "They slid through the wicket in the big gate,". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "slither" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
Etymology: Slither \Slith"er\, intransitive verb. [Compare to German schlittern, Low German schliddern. See Slide.]. (Websters 1913) |
Synonym: SlitherSynonym: slide (v). (additional references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | The only reason you were offered a job, is so that he can slither out of the lawsuit. (Will & Grace; writing credit: Evan Weinstein) Maritza, why don't you go slither away and eat your young? (Taina; writing credit: Fracaswell Hyman) | |
Tongue Twisters | Zithers slither slowly south. (references; author: unknown) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Slither" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 46.30% of the time. "Slither" is used about 54 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 46.3% | 25 | 69,787 |
| Noun (singular) | 29.63% | 16 | 87,710 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 20.37% | 11 | 106,044 |
| Noun (proper) | 3.7% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 54 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "slither": slither into the room. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "slither": a-slither, mid-slither. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
slither | 92 |
dragon sky slither | 5 |
link slither | 2 |
crisis earth slither | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "slither"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | shkas (lapse, matter, motive, slide, slip, slip down), rrëshqas (coast, dance, evade, glance off, glide, glissade, ride, skate, skid, slide, slip, toboggan). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | سعى كالحية, زلق (lubricate, lubricious, slick, slip, slippery, slippy, sweep, unctuous), إنزلق (run, shoot, sideslip, skid, slid, slide, slip, slip by, slip up, swim, toboggan). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | хлъзгам (slide, slip), плъзгам (glide, pass, skim, slide). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | pohybovat se klouzavì. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | لغزش (Error, Gaffe, Lapse, Peccadillo, Slide, Slip, Slippage, Trip), غلتیدن (Roll, Wallow), غلت (Tumble), تراشه (Chip, Excelsior, Ribbon, Sliver, Splint, Splinter), سنگریزه (Gravel, Grit, Pebble), سریدن (Coast, Glide, Skid, Slide), خزیدن (Crawl, Creep, Glide, Grovel, Ramp, Slime, Worm), اشغال (Dump, Jakes, Junk, Litter, Occupancy, Occupation, Refuse, Riffraff, Rubbish, Scrap, Slag, Sliver, Swill, Tenure, Tot, Trash), شکاف (Break, Chap, Chasm, Chink, Clef, Crack, Craze, Crevice, Cut, Fraction, Fracture, Hiatus, Incision, Interstice, Nick, Notch, Overture, Rake, Rip, Scar, Seam, Slash, Slit, Split, Suture). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | luisua (glide, go downhill, skid, slip). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | se glisser (slide, slink, slip, slip up), onduler, glisser (slide along, slip, slip down), faire glisser. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | rutschen (crawl, crumble, glide, move over, move up, shove over, shove up, skid, skitter, slide, slip, to skid, to slide, to slip, work down), glitschen (glide, slip). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | γλιστρώ (creep, glide, glissade, skid, slide, slip). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | ל"חליק (glide, skid, sleek, slide), ל""ר"ר (deteriorate, go on the skid, roll away, run to seed, worsen). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | csúszik (crawl, crept, glide, skid, slide, to crawl, to creep, to grovel, to slip, to slither). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | melata (crawl, creep). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | strisciare (crawl, creep, cringe, drag, grovel, scrabble, scrape, seals, slink, sneak, tiptoe), scivolare (glide, lapse, skid, slide, slip, swim). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | snaue (bathing, course, crawl, crawling, creep, creep as child, creeping, float, floating, flotation, glide, gliding, in suspension, scuttle; track of snail; swimming, scuttle; track; swimming, sidle, slithering, swim), skyrrey (slide, sliding, slip), skyrraghtyn (drop, glance, skate, skating, sliding, slip, slipping). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | itherslay resvalar (glance, skid, slide), escorregar (glide, glissade, skitter, slide, slip), arrastar-se (crawl, creep, drag, draggle, grovel, plod, scramble, traipse, trudge), arrastar (carry, drag, drag out, draw, entrain, haul, lug, pull, trail, tug). (various references) se târî (crawl, creep, drag, grovel, jog along, jog on, plod, toil, trail), târî (creep, drag, drag on, draw, haul, trail, tug), luneca (glide, slide, slip), aluneca (err, glide, glissade, run, skid, slide, slip). (various references) скользить (glide, scud, sideslipped, skid, slid, slide, slip, slipped, slipping, slips). (various references) kliziti (glide, skim), gmizati (grovel). (various references) deslizarse (bowl along, glide, slide, slip, snake, wriggle). (various references) hasa (shamble, shuffle), halka (skid, slide, slip, slipperiness), glida (drift, glide, plane, sail, slide, slip, spin along, sweep). (various references) sürünerek ilerlemek (creep, scramble), kaymak (aquaplane, cream, glide, glissade, head, lapse, prolapse, skate, ski, skimmings, slide, slip, slump), kayarak gitmek. (various references) іти плавною ходою, скочуватися. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "slither": slithered, slithering, slithers, slithery. (additional references) | |
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"Slither" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Clitherow, Salathe, Sibthorp, sithee, slith, slitherd, slithy, sliyher, slothe, slyth, Solothurn. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "slither" (pronounced sli"ther) |
| 3 | -i" th er | dither, hither, whither, wither, zither. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-h-i-l-r-s-t" | |
-1 letter: hirsel, hirsle, lister, liters, lither, litres, relish, relist, theirs, thirls, tilers. | |
-2 letters: heils, heirs, heist, herls, hilts, hires, islet, istle, ither, lehrs, liers, liter, lithe, litre, relit, riels, riles, rites, shiel, shier, shire, shirt, slier, stile, their, thirl, tiers, tiler, tiles, tires, tirls, tries. | |
-3 letters: elhi, erst, eths, heil, heir, herl, hers, hest. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-h-i-l-r-s-t" | |
+1 letter: blithers, lighters, luthiers, philters, philtres, relights, slighter, slithers, slithery, whistler. | |
+2 letters: aeroliths, blighters, chlorites, clothiers, erstwhile, flichters, ghastlier, ghostlier, hairstyle, heliports, helotries, herbalist, hillcrest, horsetail, hoteliers, litharges, mirthless, plighters, regoliths, rhyolites, shirtless, shrillest, sightlier, slithered, thirlages, thistlier, thrillers, thuribles, whirliest, whistlers, whittlers. | |
+3 letters: allethrins, chrysolite, chrysotile, delighters, disenthral, earthliest, earthlings, firelights, hairstyles, harlotries, herbalists, hilarities, hillcrests, holstering, horsetails, hostelries, hysterical, isothermal, lethargies, lighteners, overlights, rheologist, rhodolites, sheltering, shmaltzier, shoplifter, shrievalty, slathering, slithering, sphalerite, spherulite, splotchier, stealthier, superlight, thimerosal, thriftless, tigerishly, trailheads, trihedrals, turophiles. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)53 6C 69 74 68 65 72 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)... .-.. .. - .... . .-. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010011 01101100 01101001 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)S l i t h e r |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0053 006C 0069 0074 0068 0065 0072 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)53787586747184 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Orthography 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
