radio silence
Americannoun
-
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.
"It's just radio silence from the airport, apart from literally telling people 'we've got an issue'".
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
Neri and I usually text and talk all day, but with Brad Pitt there, it’s like radio silence from 10 in the morning to 10 at night; she doesn’t respond.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2025
Its normally active media arm went into radio silence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2024
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
Sometimes there are no clues at all about what she was doing—the equivalent of radio silence.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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.
