silence

American  

[sahy-luhns] / ˈsaɪ ləns /

noun

silences plural

1. absence of any sound or noise; stillness.

2. the state or fact of being silent; muteness.

3. absence or omission of mention, comment, or expressed concern.

   the conspicuous silence of our newspapers on local graft.

4. the state of being forgotten; oblivion.

   in the news again after years of silence.

5. concealment; secrecy.

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verb (used with object)

silences, present (3rd person singular) silenced, past participle, past silencing present participle

1. to put or bring to silence; still.

   Synonyms:

   gag, muzzle, quell, hush

2. to put (doubts, fears, etc.) to rest; quiet.

3. Military. to still (enemy guns), as by more effective fire.

interjection

1. be silent! “Silence!” the teacher shouted.

silence British  

/ ˈsaɪləns /

noun

1. the state or quality of being silent

2. the absence of sound or noise; stillness

3. refusal or failure to speak, communicate, etc, when expected

   his silence on the subject of their promotion was alarming

4. a period of time without noise

5. oblivion or obscurity

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verb

1. to bring to silence

2. to put a stop to; extinguish

   to silence all complaint

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• oversilence
  noun
• unsilenced
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• silences
  plural

Participles

• silencing
  present
• silenced
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• silence
  simple
• silences
  simple
• have silenced
  perfect
• has silenced
  perfect
• am silencing
  progressive
• are silencing
  progressive
• is silencing
  progressive
• have been silencing
  perfect progressive
• has been silencing
  perfect progressive

Past

• silenced
  simple
• had silenced
  perfect
• was silencing
  progressive
• were silencing
  progressive
• had been silencing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will silence
  simple
• will have silenced
  perfect
• will be silencing
  progressive
• will have been silencing
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

silence silences silenced silencing

And the silence of the confessed killer—who is now trying to withdraw his guilty plea— adds to the intrigue.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

The remedy, English said, would require Warsh to break his silence and say where he thinks things are headed, by signaling a modest adjustment was more likely than an open-ended hiking campaign.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

Refn: How to provoke the soul is through stillness and silence.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

Drapatyi handed in his resignation the very same day, saying he took personal responsibility for the "conspiracy of silence and impunity" that had led to the deaths.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

But in the end it was Karli, of course, who eventually decided this family moment had gone on quite long enough, and broke the silence.

From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo

Mr. Blum’s direction doesn’t allow for enough speaking silences, which might allow the characters’ interior lives to be discerned more clearly.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

What’s Next: Denali recently began clinical trials of a treatment that silences the genetic instructions for the Alzheimer’s tau protein.

From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026

It suggests that no other irreversible power to immunize lurks in the Constitution’s silences.

From Slate ● May 26, 2026

It can hold the spectrum of emotions evoked in therapy, as well as the silences.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026

How else, after all, to know how to read those silences?

From "Typical American" by Gish Jen

The researchers selectively silenced neurons associated with doublesex.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026

There was the Jude Bellingham game, when his two goals for England silenced 80,000 fans in the Estadio Azteca.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

"But in Iran, they are more easily silenced."

From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026

Silseth silenced the opposing batters, issuing only a walk to Smith.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026

I was silenced by the sight of him propped by white hospital- looking pillows in a big armchair.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

“In the end that sacred project actually tends to produce sectarian narrowness, exclusion, uniformity, silencing, self-censorship, lack of debate, the negative sanctioning of nonconformists, and the debilitation of rigorous thought.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026

"Calling it swinging implies consent, and therefore puts the blame at the feet of the women, and that makes it silencing for those women."

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026

An evening that had begun as silencing a smiling sextet ended in a sublime effort to open the mind beyond body and music to give peace a chance.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

By systematically silencing genes, the scientists observed which ones had the greatest impact on slowing or stopping cancer cell growth.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 7, 2026

Harry bellowed, directing his wand at her, and with a bang and a burst of red sparks, the curtains swung shut again, silencing her.

From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

Related Words

• cut off
• gag
• muffle
• mute
• muzzle
• quash
• quell
• squelch
• stifle
• subdue
• suppress