radio silence
Americannoun
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a state or period of time in which radios are not transmitting signals: The week’s stormy weather has caused local radio silence.
The planes were required to maintain radio silence until their mission was accomplished.
The week’s stormy weather has caused local radio silence.
-
a period of time in which a person or organization is not communicating as usual.
Sorry for the radio silence, but from now on my blog posts will be more regular.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of radio silence
First recorded in 1920–25
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“They are getting absolute radio silence and becoming increasingly desperate to stand out,” Ben Tobin, a career coach in Portland, Ore., said of the computer-science graduates he helps.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 26, 2025
Such dry spells have marked singer-songwriters like Fiona Apple and Lorde, who throughout their careers have sustained several years-long periods of radio silence between albums.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 16, 2025
Normally radio silence about attacks indicates that a victim organisation has paid the hackers to keep quiet.
From BBC • May 17, 2025
When I spoke with him again in October 2022, five months later, Slocum told me, “We continue to have radio silence from Chairman Behnam.”
From Salon • May 28, 2024
The most respected men, in accordance with the ethos that had evolved on San Piedro, pursued no one and cultivated radio silence.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
