lisp
lisp — verb
1. to say the letters 's' and 'z' with a 'th' sound because of the way your tongue
to say the letters 's' and 'z' with a 'th' sound because of the way your tongue is positioned when you speak
Whenever Ryo said the word 'zebra,' he lisped and it came out like 'thebra.'
lisp + on specific words
The speech therapist praised Emre for practicing his 's' sounds without lisping.
collocation: without lisping
During roll call, Imran lisped every time the teacher said a name with an 's.'
Leo could not stop lisping because his two front teeth had not grown back yet.
Some young children lisp naturally and the habit disappears as they grow older.
- enunciate
to speak clearly and distinctly, the opposite of mispronouncing
文法句型
lisp + on [specific sound]
lisp + when [situation]
用法筆記
Frequently used in the continuous form (lisping) when describing a habitual speech pattern. Subject is usually a person, often a child or someone with a temporary dental condition.
常見錯誤
lisp — noun
1. a way of speaking where the sounds 's' and 'z' come out as 'th', often caused by
a way of speaking where the sounds 's' and 'z' come out as 'th', often caused by the tongue pushing against the front teeth
Growing up with a lisp, Talia learned to choose her words carefully in class.
collocation: grow up with a lisp
Paul's school nurse said a lisp often fades as children grow older.
lisp + natural improvement
Élise's lisp was so slight that most people did not notice it during conversation.
For many young children, a lisp disappears naturally once their adult teeth come through.
A lisp can make a teenager shy during group discussions at school.
- speech impediment
broader term that includes lisp, stutter, and other conditions
- articulation disorder
the clinical/medical term for difficulty producing certain speech sounds
- clear speech
speech without any pronunciation difficulties
文法句型
[have/speak with] + a lisp
lisp + [verb] (e.g. lisp disappears, lisp improves)
用法筆記
Often used with 'have' (have a lisp) or 'speak with' (speak with a lisp). In medical contexts the formal term is 'articulation disorder' or 'lisper.' Distinguish from noun sense 2 (programming language) by context — this sense is about speech, not computing.
常見錯誤
2. a programming language invented in the late 1950s that processes data as lists o
a programming language invented in the late 1950s that processes data as lists of symbols and is widely used in artificial intelligence research
Andrés taught his class that Lisp helped write some of the earliest AI programs.
Lisp + historical context (AI)
An engineer used Lisp to build a program that understood simple voice commands.
Maeve's first programming project involved writing a small chess game in Lisp.
Learning Lisp helped Gita think differently about how data and functions relate to each other.
The research team chose Lisp for its flexibility with symbols in language experiments.
文法句型
[write/program/build] in Lisp
[language] + called Lisp
用法筆記
Always capitalized in writing. The name is short for 'LISt Processing.' Unlike the speech sense (noun 1), this is an uncountable proper noun and does not take 'a' or 'the' unless referring to a specific implementation (e.g., 'the Common Lisp language').