silence
Americannoun
-
silences
plural
-
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.
-
the state of being forgotten; oblivion.
in the news again after years of silence.
-
concealment; secrecy.
verb (used with object)
-
silences,
present (3rd person singular)
-
silenced,
past participle, past
-
silencing
present participle
interjection
noun
-
the state or quality of being silent
-
the absence of sound or noise; stillness
-
refusal or failure to speak, communicate, etc, when expected
his silence on the subject of their promotion was alarming
-
a period of time without noise
-
oblivion or obscurity
verb
-
to bring to silence
-
to put a stop to; extinguish
to silence all complaint
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
silencesimple
-
silencessimple
-
have silencedperfect
-
has silencedperfect
-
am silencingprogressive
-
are silencingprogressive
-
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
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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.
See Examples For:
Melissa Rycroft has broken her silence following her Halloween arrest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
At the time, Wong vowed to "continue to defend my home -- Hong Kong -- until they silence me".
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026
These treatments can introduce working copies of genes, silence harmful genetic activity, or make changes directly to DNA.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 4, 2026
A minute's silence was held before Tuesday evening's Champions League matches across Europe.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
There’s a long silence while I search again for the words I can never seem to find.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
His framework suggests that when loyalty silences voice instead, exit becomes the only remaining option.
From Salon ● Nov. 5, 2026
The presenter, known for her off-the-wall questions and deadpan silences, revealed the news in an Instagram post.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Gilligan loves silences and uses them in long stretches, allowing — or, perhaps more accurately, demanding — his audience to figure out what’s happening on their own.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
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
And when President Snow silences the audience and says, “What do you think about us throwing them a wedding right here in the Capitol?”
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
This may be one reason many people fear coming forward to seek accountability and are effectively silenced.
From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2026
Papa Warren’s frustration at being silenced became part of our family lore.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
“This represents an important victory for the principle that women who speak out about sexual abuse should not be silenced by NDAs that contravene California law,” Barnett attorney Rosengart said in the notice.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
During the task, the researchers temporarily silenced either V1 or LM and watched how the remaining region behaved without its usual partner.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 24, 2026
They had heard of my rehabilitation work in Holland, he said, and they wondered—I was opening my mouth to say that I had no professional training in such things, when his next words silenced me.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Storms battered northern Europe on Sunday cutting power to more than 150,000 homes, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights and silencing phone networks.
From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2026
A WhatsApp spokesman said there were features in place to protect its users from scam calls, including silencing calls from unknown numbers.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Researchers have explored gene silencing approaches using siRNAs, antisense oligonucleotides, and CRISPR.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 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
“He took off,” a voice says from behind me, immediately silencing all music, all chatter, the wind and the sea.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
