Silencing

How to spell silencing

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce silencing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does silencing mean?

1. verbThe act of making something quiet or of stopping a person or group from expressing themselves.

Silencing in a sentence

• The new policy felt like a deliberate silencing of staff complaints.

• Engineers worked on silencing the rattle coming from the engine bay.

Where does silencing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb silere, meaning 'to be quiet' or 'to make no sound', which gave the noun silentium for the state of stillness. English took 'silence' through Old French in the early 1300s, first as a noun and later as a verb meaning 'to make quiet' or 'to suppress'. The form 'silencing' is the gerund and present participle of that verb, naming the action of cutting off sound or stopping someone from speaking. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the unstressed vowel sounds like a vague schwa, yet it must be written -ence (from silentium), not -ance. The same silere root also underlies 'silent' and the rather literary 'desilent', and keeping the e in mind helps anchor the whole family.

How the word is built

• sil- (from Latin silere: to be quiet)
• -ence (noun suffix)
• -ing (verb/gerund suffix)