| English Dictionary |
SILENT
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| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does silent mean?
• SILENT (adjective)
The adjective SILENT has 6 senses:
1. marked by absence of sound
2. failing to speak or communicate etc when expected to
3. implied by or inferred from actions or statements
4. not made to sound
5. having a frequency below or above the range of human audibility
6. unable to speak because of hereditary deafness
Familiarity information: SILENT used as an adjective is common.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Marked by absence of sound
Synonyms:
Context example:
the night was still
Similar:
quiet (free of noise or uproar; or making little if any sound)
Derivation:
silence (the absence of sound)
silence (the state of being silent (as when no one is speaking))
Sense 2
Meaning:
Failing to speak or communicate etc when expected to
Synonyms:
mum; silent
Context example:
the witness remained silent
Similar:
incommunicative; uncommunicative (not inclined to talk or give information or express opinions)
Derivation:
silence (a refusal to speak when expected)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Implied by or inferred from actions or statements
Synonyms:
silent; tacit; understood
Context example:
the understood provisos of a custody agreement
Similar:
implicit; inexplicit (implied though not directly expressed; inherent in the nature of something)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Not made to sound
Synonyms:
silent; unsounded
Context example:
in French certain letters are often unsounded
Similar:
inaudible; unhearable (impossible to hear; imperceptible by the ear)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Having a frequency below or above the range of human audibility
Context example:
a silent dog whistle
Similar:
inaudible; unhearable (impossible to hear; imperceptible by the ear)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Unable to speak because of hereditary deafness
Synonyms:
Similar:
inarticulate; unarticulate (without or deprived of the use of speech or words)
Context examples
I checked, therefore, my impatient thirst for sympathy and was silent when I would have given the world to have confided the fatal secret.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He was a very silent man by custom.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
“We have not been so silent all the time,” replied his mother.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
We were silent again, and remained so, until the Doctor rose and walked twice or thrice across the room.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Miss Tilney continuing silent, she ventured to say, “Her death must have been a great affliction!”
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
She had never seen Frank Churchill so silent and stupid.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
By ten o’clock, when the shops were closed, the by-street was very solitary and, in spite of the low growl of London from all round, very silent.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Lucy lay motionless, and did not seem to have strength to speak, so for a while we were all silent.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Well, sir, it’s this lonely, silent house and the queer thing in the kitchen.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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