shush

Shush is a word with several distinct meanings. In English, it functions as a verb meaning to quiet or silence someone and as an interjection used to request quiet, often written as “shush” or “shh.” The act of shushing is commonly described as asking for silence, and the term is largely onomatopoeic, imitating the soft sound used to hush others.

Shush (Persian: شوش) is also the name of a city in Khuzestan Province in southwestern Iran. It serves as the capital of Shush County and sits near the ancient city of Susa, a major urban center in the Elamite, Achaemenid, and later periods. The modern town lies on the Dez River plain, and the surrounding area is rich in archaeological sites and museums that display artifacts from millennia of regional history. The name Shush reflects the contemporary transliteration of the site traditionally known in Persian and historical sources as Susa.

In addition to these primary meanings, the term may appear in various transliterations of place names and in cultural or literary contexts. The word’s usage outside ordinary speech is typically tied to its function as a directive for quiet or to the geographic reference to the Iranian city near the ancient site.