mute

American  

[myoot] / mjut /

adjective

muter, mutest

1. silent; refraining from speech or utterance.

   Antonyms:

   talkative

2. not emitting or having sound of any kind.

3. incapable of speech (offensive when applied to humans).

   Animals are mute and are only able to speak in fairy tales and fables.

4. (of letters) silent; not pronounced.

   The mute “e” in the word “dime” makes the preceding vowel long, so it is not pronounced like “dim.”

5. Law. (of a person who has been arraigned) making no plea or giving an irrelevant response when arraigned, or refusing to stand trial (used chiefly in the phraseto stand mute ).

6. Fox Hunting. (of a hound) hunting a line without giving tongue or cry.

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noun

• mutes
  plural

1. Offensive. a person incapable of speech.

2. an actor whose part is confined to dumb show.

3. Law. a person who stands mute when arraigned.

4. Also called sordino. a mechanical device of various shapes and materials for muffling the tone of a musical instrument.

5. Phonetics. (especially in older use) stop.

6. British Obsolete. a hired mourner at a funeral; a professional mourner.

verb (used with object)

• mutes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• muted,
  past participle,  past
• muting
  present participle

1. to deaden or muffle the sound of.

   The music was a little muted by distance and the trees.

2. to turn off (a microphone, a speaker, or audio).

   During the commercials, they muted the TV and discussed the game.

   Check the mic icon to make sure you're not muted.

3. to reduce the intensity of (a color) by the addition of another color.

4. to soften or subdue; moderate.

   His happiness about returning to the United States was muted by his concern for the other hostages.

mute ¹ British  

/ mjuːt /

adjective

1. not giving out sound or speech; silent

2. unable to speak; dumb

3. unspoken or unexpressed

   mute dislike

4. law (of a person arraigned on indictment) refusing to answer a charge

5. phonetics another word for plosive

6. (of a letter in a word) silent

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noun

1. a person who is unable to speak

2. law a person who refuses to plead when arraigned on indictment for an offence

3. any of various devices used to soften the tone of stringed or brass instruments

4. phonetics a plosive consonant; stop

5. a silent letter

6. an actor in a dumb show

7. a hired mourner at a funeral

verb

1. to reduce the volume of (a musical instrument) by means of a mute, soft pedal, etc

2. to subdue the strength of (a colour, tone, lighting, etc)

mute ² British  

/ mjuːt /

verb

1. (of birds) to discharge (faeces)

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noun

1. birds' faeces

Sensitive Note

See dumb.

Usage

Using this word to refer to people without speech is considered outdated and offensive and should be avoided. The phrase profoundly deaf is a suitable alternative in many contexts

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• muteness
  noun
• mutely
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• mutes
  plural

Participles

• muting
  present
• muted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• mute
  simple
• mutes
  simple
• have muted
  perfect
• has muted
  perfect
• am muting
  progressive
• are muting
  progressive
• is muting
  progressive
• have been muting
  perfect progressive
• has been muting
  perfect progressive

Past

• muted
  simple
• had muted
  perfect
• was muting
  progressive
• were muting
  progressive
• had been muting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will mute
  simple
• will have muted
  perfect
• will be muting
  progressive
• will have been muting
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of mute

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English muet, mewet, muwet, from Old French müet, muet, diminutive formation of Old French mu, from Latin mūtus “dumb, inarticulate”; see -et

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Explanation

Mute means “silent.” No matter how much you talk to your houseplants, they’ll never talk back; they'll remain mute. When used as a noun, mute can mean “someone who isn't capable of speech" or “a device that deadens the sound of an instrument.” Mute can also be used as a verb meaning "to make silent.” One might mute the television by pressing a button on the remote, or one might try to mute a loquacious individual. Unfortunately, the technology for that last option doesn’t exist yet.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mute mutes muter mutest muted muting

Just enough context that the object isn’t mute anymore.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026

"I think at some stage we need to open the communication channels because, you know, you can't have a conversation if you're pressing the mute button," but "so far there's no timeline for it".

From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026

Can you mute parents' WhatsApp groups and just focus on official school emails?

From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026

His mute misadventures are the purest expression of animation’s freedom to do and draw anything.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

Valerian looks furious, his hands fisted at his sides in mute rage.

From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black

There is a “school mode” that mutes notifications during school hours.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

“The ruling mutes the noisiest channel of tariff risk, but it does not end the story. It removes the air-raid siren, not the arsenal.”

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 22, 2026

Hydralazine acts by binding to and blocking ADO, which means it effectively "mutes" that oxygen alarm.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 2, 2025

The farmers and miners got to hear the most intoxicating music on Earth from brassy cornet players and driving saxophonists, exotic trombone mutes, squealing trumpets and sultry clarinets.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2024

When we blow the notes through the mutes in our trombone bells, the sound is rounded, soft and muffled, as if underwater.

From "Muffled" by Jennifer Gennari

With the exception of muter, these readings could have been recovered by conjecture; given the separative interpolation at iii 44, F differs surprisingly little from the other manuscripts.

From The Last Poems of Ovid by Mark Bear Akrigg

It troubled many more than King, but the members of the corps were muter than oysters.

From Stalky & Co. by Rudyard Kipling

Not to be slain himself, see Gellius handle his uncle's Lady; no Harpocrates muter, his uncle is hush'd.

From The Poems and Fragments of Catullus by Robinson Ellis

And muter than ever, pondering deeply, and secretly trembling in the queerest way, these two outwardly sedate young people returned to the Dower House....

From Mr. Britling Sees It Through by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

In vain:—the song that Sappho gave,   In dying, to the mournful sea, Not muter slept beneath the wave   Than this within my memory.

From The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore Collected by Himself with Explanatory Notes by William Michael Rossetti

Particularly in these times, France wants her soldiers mute and professional, and the mutest and most professional is Maurice Gamelin.

From Time Magazine Archive

I name for instance, just to hover a little, silent Vanderpool, the mutest presence at the Upham board, and quite with no sense of the invidious in so doing.

From Notes of a Son and Brother by Henry James

The flying meteors backward glance On thee to gaze, And bright auroras softly dance In mutest praise; And, to and fro, With motion slow Wave the lamps whence colors flow.

From The Arctic Queen by Unknown

On these occasions my friend would listen to me with the mutest attention.

From Arthur Mervyn Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793 by Charles Brockden Brown

And himselfe, not I Inclin'd to this intelligence, pronounce The Beggery of his change: but 'tis your Graces That from my mutest Conscience, to my tongue, Charmes this report out Imo.

From Cymbeline by William Shakespeare

There's been a muted response from big tech.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

Stock futures steadied and Treasurys weakened slightly in muted trading, as markets calmed after a volatile day on Thursday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

Most of the anticipated growth is from semiconductor and energy stocks, but, beneath the surface of those power players, earnings forecasts are more muted, Inui says.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026

Goldman saw muted activity in some parts of its markets business, such as fixed income, currency and commodities, where revenues were "essentially unchanged," the firm said in a press release.

From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026

Her gold chandelier earrings glinted in the muted light from the bonfire.

From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon

Among several solutions such as time limits and muting notifications during certain hours, the changes include giving teens the option to choose to view a non-algorithmic social media feed that isn’t personalized.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

US oil giants reported lower earnings Friday with accounting effects muting the benefits of the Middle East oil shock, as ExxonMobil's CEO cautioned that crude prices could still increase.

From Barron's ● May 1, 2026

The limited age range for super catch-up contributions may be muting the benefit, according to Miklos Ringbauer, founder and principal of MiklosCPA, an accounting and tax-strategy firm.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 29, 2026

To make it a full month without buying, Piper suggests muting and unfollowing anything that encourages spending, like marketing emails or Instagram accounts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 21, 2026

The bantustan system had been conceived by Dr. H. F. Verwoerd, the minister of native affairs, as a way of muting international criticism of South African racial policies but at the same time institutionalizing apartheid.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

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Related Words

• dampen
• soften
• subdue

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