Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Marked by absence of noise or sound; still.
- adj. Not inclined to speak; not talkative.
- adj. Unable to speak.
- adj. Refraining from speech: Do be silent.
- adj. Not voiced or expressed; unspoken: a silent curse; silent consent.
- adj. Inactive; quiescent: a silent volcano.
- adj. Linguistics Having no phonetic value; unpronounced: the silent b in subtle.
- adj. Having no spoken dialogue and usually no soundtrack. Used of a film.
- adj. Producing no detectable signs or symptoms: a silent heart attack.
- n. A silent movie.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Not speaking, or making a noise with the voice; withholding or restraining vocal sounds; mute; dumb; speechless: as, a silent spectator; silent watchers.
- In a restricted use, not given to speaking; using; few words; not loquacious.
- Not speaking about some specified thing; withholding mention or statement; saying nothing; uncommunicative.
- Lacking authority or ability to speak, as about something of personal concern; not having a voice; disqualified for speech: as, a silent partner in a firm (see partner); the silent part of creation.
- Not uttered or expressed with the voice; unmarked by utterance or demonstrative speech; unspoken; unsounded: as, silent agony or endurance; silent opposition; a silent letter (see below).
- Free from or unattended by noise or sound; marked by stillness; quiet: as, silent woods; a silent assembly.
- Synonyms and Silent, Taciturn, Dumb, Mute. Silent expresses the fact of not speaking, taciturn the habitual disposition to refrain from speaking. Dumb strictly implies lack of the organs of speech, or defect in them, or lack of the power of speaking, while mute implies some special cause: hence deaf-mute is thought by many a better name than deaf-and-dumb person for one who does not speak on account of deafness; an idol is dumb, not mute. Under figurative extension mute, dumb, and silent are often used outside of the lines here indicated. In such freer use there is an advance in strength from silent, to mute and from mute to dumb: as, silent from abstraction; mute with astonishment; struck dumb with horror.
- n. A silent period.
- n. A short-circuit switch attached to an electric alarm, which when closed prevents the alarm from acting.
Wiktionary
- adj. Free from sound or noise; absolutely still; perfectly quiet.
- adj. Not speaking; indisposed to talk; speechless; mute; taciturn; not loquacious; not talkative.
- adj. Keeping at rest; inactive; calm; undisturbed; as, the wind is silent. Parnell. Sir W. Raleigh.
- adj. pronunciation Not pronounced; having no sound; quiescent; as, "e is silent in fable."
- adj. Having no effect; not operating; inefficient.
- adj. technology Without audio capability.
- adj. Hidden, unseen, as a silent voter or silent partner.
- n. uncountable That which is silent; a time of silence.
- n. A silent movie
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Free from sound or noise; absolutely still; perfectly quiet.
- adj. Not speaking; indisposed to talk; speechless; mute; taciturn; not loquacious; not talkative.
- adj. Keeping at rest; inactive; calm; undisturbed.
- adj. (Pron.) Not pronounced; having no sound; quiescent.
- adj. rare Having no effect; not operating; inefficient.
- n. rare That which is silent; a time of silence.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. not made to sound
- adj. unable to speak because of hereditary deafness
- adj. failing to speak or communicate etc when expected to
- adj. implied by or inferred from actions or statements
- adj. having a frequency below or above the range of human audibility
- adj. marked by absence of sound
Etymologies
- From Latin silēnt-, silēns ("silent"), present participle of sileō ("be silent"), from Proto-Indo-European *seil- (“still, windless, quiet, slow”). Cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌰𐍃𐌹𐌻𐌰𐌽 (anasilan, "to cease, grow still, be silent"), Old English sālnes ("silence"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin silēns, silent-, present participle of silēre, to be silent. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Sometimes, to remain silent is to lie, since silence can be interpreted as assent.”
“The term silent evidence comes from a book I am currently enjoying, entitled "Fooled by Randomness" by a former securities trader named Nassim Taleb. which I have mentioned before.”
“But alone among the major parties here, the Salafi candidates have embraced the powerful strain of populism that helped rally the public against the crony capitalism of the Mubarak era and seems at times to echo - like the phrase "silent majority" - right-wing movements in the United States and Europe.”
“Just remember that the term silent migraine or acephalgic migraine is used to describe a migraine that does not have the headache pain.”
“With his freedom of movement severely curtailed he is not allowed to go for a walk even with bodyguards he embarked on what he calls a silent one to one combat.”
“The cultural anthropologist Edward T Hall, who was in that circle, and studied what he called the silent languages of time and space, once pointed out to me that our most significant, most critical inventions were not those ever considered to be inventions, but those that appeared to be innate and natural.”
The Guardian: John Brockman: the man who runs the world's smartest website
“At one point, what we call the silent majority came to be aligned with the street protests at least from a humanitarian and moral point of view.”
The Wall Street Journal: Syrian Activists Say Assad Gains Advantage
“Protesters chaining themselves to the White House gate on Monday, objecting to what they called the silent homophobia of those who purport to be our friends and do nothing, capped a tumultuous few days in the fight to repeal”
The Huffington Post: Arianna Huffington: The Split-Screen Struggle Over Gay Rights
“This naming issue is worth enormously more to the demonstrators and Mr. Tong than it does to me, so much more that even if I am in what you call the silent majority, it still makes more sense for you, from the utilitarian perspective, to give Mr. Tong and the demonstrators what they want.”
“Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced plans to develop a uniform formula to shed light on what she calls a silent epidemic.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘silent’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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Sounds
words that describe sound
atchoo, atishoo, babble, bam, bay, beep, blast, blather, bleat, bleep, blip, bong and 242 more...
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Film
jidaigeki, samurai, Kurosawa, action, comedy, drama, Bergman, Buñuel, surreal, rotoscope, melodrama, Cinerama and 333 more...
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sound (quiet)
words for quiet sounds
( randomness, descriptive )sigh, murmur, whisper, whir, rustle, patter, hum, snap, hiss(sss), crackle, bleat, peep and 185 more...
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Introverted
Quiet, shy, Introverted, reserved, isolated, mysterious
abashed, alienated, alone, anonymous, antisocial, ascetic, asocial, austere, autonomous, awkward, bashful, clannish and 91 more...
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Do-it-yourself Christmas Carol List
Tired of singing the same carols year after year? Wanna mix it up a little? Now you can, with the Do-it-yourself Christmas Carol List (from the creator of the Doo-it-yourself Doowop List). Just mix...
let it, reindeer, silent, child, Christmas, got run over by a, mercy mild, winter, joyful, holly, newborn, king and 59 more...
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Odd Anagrams
Sets of anagrams that have contrasting or related meanings.
casual, causal, parental, paternal, prenatal, atoners, senator, treason, listen, silent, dictionary, indicatory and 110 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (S)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
sabian symbols, saffron, sagacious, sage, salamander, sally lunn, salmon, salsify, salt water taffy, samhain, sand dollar, sandalwood and 270 more...
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theastic's Words
cellar, stalemate, wrought, opal, tyrant, squelch, squab, linen, tartan, paisley, scope, siren and 395 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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Faintheart's Words
onomatopoeia, no, terrafactive, word, faint, heart, joy, quixotic, karla, half, amp, tardis and 181 more...
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Scriptie: The Return of the King
i can't carry it ..., at the end of all..., it's done, reach, eagles, veil, grass, water, cream, strawberries, barley, summer and 200 more...
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Relationship
enough, intimacy, invisibility, revolving, silent, spooky, galore
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Under Milk Wood
moonless, night, starless, bible-black, cobblestreets, silent, hunched, courters-and-rabbits, invisible, limping, sloeblack, crowblack and 95 more...
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Let's Go To the Movies
Film genres. Also see film--1 by bradleyrturner.
silent, talkie, drama, coming-of-age, comedy, black comedy, buddy movie, slapstick, romance, romcom, tearjerker, period piece and 44 more...
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Used on critiques
remote, solitaire, tragic, complex, mature, intimate, silent, paradoxal, cathartic, eloquent, intense, passionate and 2 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for silent.
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