making or having a harsh sound; grating; creaking

strident insects; strident hinges.

having a shrill, irritating quality or character

a strident tone in his writings.

Linguistics . (in distinctive feature analysis) characterized acoustically by noise of relatively high intensity, as sibilants, labiodental and uvular fricatives, and most affricates.

adjective

low , mild , moderate , soft

adjective

blatant , boisterous , clamorous , clashing , discordant , grating , hoarse , jangling , jarring , loud , noisy , obstreperous , rasping , raucous , screeching , squawky , squeaky , stentorian , stertorous , stridulant , stridulous , unmusical , vociferant , vociferous , dry , raspy , rough , scratchy , cacophonous , harsh , piercing , shrill