PEACEFUL

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does peaceful mean? 

• PEACEFUL (adjective)
  The adjective PEACEFUL has 2 senses:

1. not disturbed by strife or turmoil or war

2. peacefully resistant in response to injustice

  Familiarity information: PEACEFUL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PEACEFUL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not disturbed by strife or turmoil or war

Synonyms:

peaceable; peaceful

Context example:

peaceful sleep

Similar:

halcyon (idyllically calm and peaceful; suggesting happy tranquillity)

irenic (conducive to peace)

nonbelligerent (not directly at war)

pacific; peaceable (disposed to peace or of a peaceful nature)

dovish; pacifist; pacifistic (opposed to war)

peace-loving; peaceable (inclined or disposed to peace)

Also:

nonaggressive; unaggressive (not aggressive; not given to fighting or assertiveness)

amicable (characterized by friendship and good will)

quiet (characterized by an absence or near absence of agitation or activity)

nonviolent (abstaining (on principle) from the use of violence)

Antonym:

unpeaceful (not peaceful)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Peacefully resistant in response to injustice

Synonyms:

passive; peaceful

Context example:

passive resistance

Similar:

nonviolent (abstaining (on principle) from the use of violence)

Derivation:

peacefulness (a state that is calm and tranquil)

 Context examples 

The picture I present to you is peaceful and human, and you must feel that you could deny it only in the wantonness of power and cruelty.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

How still and peaceful it all seems.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We have not had a peaceful hour since—not one.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You might think of farms as peaceful settings.

(Farm Health and Safety, Occupational Safety and Health Administration)

A question about whether an individual feels or felt calm and peaceful.

(Have You Felt Calm and Peaceful, NCI Thesaurus)

And yet it was a coward's blow, and one to stir the blood and loose the tongue of the most peaceful.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was so peaceful and resigned—clearly had his affairs in such perfect train, and so systematically wound up—that he was a man to feel touched in the contemplation of.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Like sunshine after a storm were the peaceful weeks which followed.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

We’re going to have a peaceful evening, as Jem Belcher and I will show you if you get up to any of your Whitechapel games.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The peaceful penetration of Maple White Land was the pressing subject before us.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)