silence
Americannoun
-
absence of any sound or noise; stillness.
-
the state or fact of being silent; muteness.
-
absence or omission of mention, comment, or expressed concern.
the conspicuous silence of our newspapers on local graft.
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the state of being forgotten; oblivion.
in the news again after years of silence.
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concealment; secrecy.
verb (used with object)
interjection
noun
-
the state or quality of being silent
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the absence of sound or noise; stillness
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refusal or failure to speak, communicate, etc, when expected
his silence on the subject of their promotion was alarming
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a period of time without noise
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oblivion or obscurity
verb
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to bring to silence
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to put a stop to; extinguish
to silence all complaint
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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silencesimple
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silencessimple
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have silencedperfect
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has silencedperfect
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am silencingprogressive
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are silencingprogressive
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is silencingprogressive
-
have been silencingperfect progressive
-
has been silencingperfect progressive
Past
-
silencedsimple
-
had silencedperfect
-
was silencingprogressive
-
were silencingprogressive
-
had been silencingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of silence
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English (noun), from Old French, from Latin silentium, derivative of silēre “to be quiet”; cf. silent
Explanation
Silence is quietness, or a lack of sound. When you silence a noisy movie-goer, you shush her. When there's silence, nothing is heard. Silence is empty, the opposite of a noisy racket. A library is one place where there's supposed to be silence so people can concentrate. To silence someone is to hush him up or tell him to be quiet. Silence also has a more disturbing meaning: if someone threatens you to keep you from saying something, she's trying to silence you. Censorship silences free speech.
Vocabulary lists containing silence
myPerspectives 7.2
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Purple Hibiscus
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"Nadia the Willful"
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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.
Others run through the street asking for silence.
From BBC • Jun. 29, 2026
Rescue crews working at one of the many buildings destroyed in Venezuela's killer earthquakes called for silence as they heard some kind of sound from a survivor buried in the rubble.
From Barron's • Jun. 28, 2026
But the top note, the sauce, is the silence enveloping it all, peppered by the thunder of a squall just outside.
From Salon • Jun. 28, 2026
Before the game began, a minute of silence was observed in memory of the victims of the earthquakes in Venezuela.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 27, 2026
As the minutes went by and we didn’t speak, the silence went around and around and dropped down over us like the night dropped into the room.
From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott
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.
