Meaning of silence in English

silence

noun

/ˈsaɪ.ləns/ us

/ˈsaɪ.ləns/

silence noun (QUIET)

Add to word list Add to word list

B1 [ U ]

a period without any sound; complete quiet:

A loud crash of thunder broke the silence of the night.

Silence reigned (= there was complete silence) in the church.

More examplesFewer examples

The conductor waited for dead silence before commencing the performance.
After he had spoken, a deathly silence/hush fell on the room.
In the silence of the night, a lone wolf howled.
A screech of brakes jarred the silence.
The silence was broken only by the whisper of the leaves in the gentle breeze.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Silence & quiet

See more results »

silence noun (NO SPEAKING)

B1 [ U ]

a state of not speaking or writing or making a noise:

The soldiers listened in silence as their captain gave the orders.

"Silence! (= Stop talking!)" shouted the teacher.

My request for help was met with silence (= I received no answer).

Their mother's angry words reduced the children to silence.

B2 [ C ]

a period of time in which there is complete quiet or no speaking:

Their conversation was punctuated by uncomfortable silences.

C2 [ U or C ]

a state of refusing to talk about something or answer questions, or a state of not communicating:

My request for help was met with silence (= I received no answer).

Her silence about/on what had happened to her surprised everyone.

I don't expect to hear from her now, after three years' silence (= three years in which she has not spoken or written to me).

More examplesFewer examples

Cistercian monks and nuns take a vow of silence.
He has maintained a dignified silence about the rumours.
A jury should not interpret the silence of a defendant as a sign of guilt.
No one could think of anything more to say, and the meeting lapsed into silence.
We listened in silence as the names of the dead were read out.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Falling silent and not speaking

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Silence & quiet

Idiom

silence is golden

silence

verb [ T ]

/ˈsaɪ.ləns/ us

/ˈsaɪ.ləns/

to make someone or something be quiet:

The teacher raised his voice to silence the class (= to make them stop talking).

Her remark about his appearance completely silenced him (= made him unable to answer).

figurative The enemy's guns were silenced (= made to stop firing) in a surprise attack.

to prevent someone from expressing their views or from criticizing or opposing someone:

Big companies file lawsuits to silence their critics.

The more they try to silence us, the more we will speak out.

Al Capone silenced his opponents by killing them.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Falling silent and not speaking

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Preventing and impeding

(Definition of silence from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

silence | American Dictionary

silence

noun

/ˈsɑɪ·ləns/

silence noun (QUIET)

Add to word list Add to word list

[ U ]

an absence of sound; complete quiet:

A profound silence spread itself through the sleeping house.

silence noun (NO SPEAKING)

[ C/U ]

a state of not speaking or making noise:

[ U ] The two men ate in silence and listened to traffic swishing past on the highway.

[ C ] Her question was followed by a long silence (= a long period of time in which no one spoke).

silence

verb [ T ]

/ˈsɑɪ·ləns/

silence verb [T] (STOP FROM SPEAKING)

to stop someone from speaking or from criticizing:

Successful action could silence the administration’s critics.

(Definition of silence from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of silence

silence

In spite of claims by the editor to national representation, many voices are silenced by their absences.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The article shows how through a series of assumptions the doubts regarding the programme were silenced and the narrative upheld.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

He and his fiddle are silent, silenced by noise.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Her portrayal of individual lone stars, in the heavenly constellations, is punctuated by silences, most ominously.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The song ends brusquely as the realization of being in love silences the singer, and wittily interrupts the expected conclusion.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Our approach explains why there is a limit on consonant clusters : the intervening empty vocalic positions have to be silenced.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In memoirs the silences and the ellipses are as instructive as the narrative.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

What is more, neither version of the silencing argument actually rests on liberal premises, as purported.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There are no silences between words in continuous speech that serve to separate lexical tokens as do spaces on the printed page.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Rate of gene silencing at duplicate loci : a theoretical study and interpretation of data from tetraploid fishes.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The precise mechanisms underlying imprinting, paramutation and transposon silencing remain elusive, and these processes are currently viewed as separate phenomena.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The problem here was that the noise of battle could not be so easily silenced.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Families and loved ones must not be silenced.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, its aftermath represents one of the great silences in the literature.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In other words, what the historian chooses to tell inevitably sanctions some voices while silencing others.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of silence

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with silence

silence

These are words often used in combination with silence.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

absolute silence

So on the first occasion that they were ever performed to an audience, the closing moments of the drama were presented in absolute silence.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

awkward silence

An awkward silence follows, and the spectators shuffle out of the hall.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

complete silence

There is a fluid mix of groupings of speakers, and multiple floors are evident throughout, but there rarely is complete silence.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all collocations with silence

What is the pronunciation of silence?

Translations of silence

in Chinese (Traditional)

安靜, 寧靜, 寂靜…

Meaning of silence in English

silence noun (QUIET)

silence noun (NO SPEAKING)

Idiom

silence | American Dictionary

silence noun (QUIET)

silence noun (NO SPEAKING)

silence verb [T] (STOP FROM SPEAKING)

Examples of silence

Collocations with silence

silence

Translations of silence

Browse

Learn more with +Plus

Learn more with +Plus