Entry Word: stillness

Function: noun

Meaning: 1 a state of freedom from storm or disturbance <dozing in the warm stillness of a summer afternoon> — see calm
2 incapacity for or restraint from speaking <from the coupleʼs tense stillness I sensed that they had been quarreling just before I arrived> — see silence 1
3 the near or complete absence of sound <the only thing that broke the stillness of the garden was the droning of a bee> — see silence 2