silencing

verb

present participle of silence
1
as in shushing
to stop the noise or speech of the instructor quickly silenced anyone who tried to interrupt we need to have a repairman come and silence that door alarm

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in suppressing
to put a stop to (something) by the use of force brutally silenced all political dissent in the country

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of silencing Mookie Betts drove a fly ball to the warning track, momentarily silencing the crowd, until Mitchell closed his glove around it. — Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2026 Rights groups have, however, accused the country of sportswashing to cover up its reputation for silencing critics, including accusations of killings and disappearances, allegations the government denies. — Damian Zane, semafor.com, 9 Oct. 2026 Ramírez smothered the ball under him, picked it up, spun and rifled a strike to Nathaniel Lowe at first base for the final out of the inning, silencing the 40,590 fans at Rate Field. — Andy Martinez, Chicago Tribune, 8 Oct. 2026 Williams departed with a right hamstring injury midway through the fourth quarter, silencing a drenched crowd of 58,914 at Soldier Field. — CBS News, 20 Sep. 2026 Those findings should not be reduced to one group silencing the other. — Liam Julian, Baltimore Sun, 14 Sep. 2026 Labor Day Headphones Deals The Bose QuietComfort headphones remain the industry benchmark for silencing everyday distractions. — Juhi Wadia, PC Magazine, 8 Sep. 2026 And to be unseen is a kind of disappearance and to be uncredited is a kind of silencing. — Rebecca Aizin, PEOPLE, 3 Sep. 2026 AstraZeneca and Ionis will reveal details on why their rival gene-silencing drug, eplontersen, failed a pivotal Phase 3 study. — Meghana Keshavan, STAT, 27 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for silencing
  1. shushing
  2. suppressing
  3. quieting
  4. quelling
  5. muting
  6. subduing
  7. hushing
  8. repressing
Verb
  • Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim went to 3-0 for the week with a crowd-shushing rally from 2 down to a 2-and-1 victory over Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 26 Sep. 2026
  • Trae Young won Madison Square Garden’s undying enmity in the 2021 playoffs for the Atlanta Hawks, punctuating game-breaking shots by shushing the crowd or bowing to the fans and waving goodbye.
    — Leah Asmelash, CNN Money, 9 June 2026
Definition of shushing
Verb
  • According to Iran Human Rights Monitor, the force has evolved into a powerful internal security institution involved in suppressing anti-government demonstrations, monitoring political activity and enforcing the regime's ideological restrictions.
    — Emma Bussey, FOXNews.com, 11 Oct. 2026
  • Cybersecurity specialist Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) decides to turn whistleblower upon discovering that the US government has been suppressing evidence of extra-terrrestrial life, as part of a cover-up that goes back decades.
    — Tom Bailey, Space.com, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of suppressing
Verb
  • Patrick Mahomes finished the job by scrambling up the middle, simultaneously giving the Chiefs an early lead and quieting some doubts about his reconstructed ACL and LCL.
    — Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Use the words that suit the tone of the piece, and that might mean quieting your inner voice, or the voice of your mother.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of quieting
Verb
  • There is something instructive in the agent concluding a diatribe on quelling revolutionary violence with a note about feeling inspired.
    — Stephanie Wambugu, Vulture, 12 Oct. 2026
  • The break with Callaway was the first sign that Good Good’s attempts at quelling the crisis were not going well after Clark’s statement on social media Wednesday night.
    — Kyle Feldscher, CNN Money, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of quelling
Verb
  • Among several solutions such as time limits and muting notifications during certain hours, the changes include giving teens the option to choose to view a non-algorithmic social media feed that isn’t personalized.
    — Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2026
  • During the third act, in a cunning effect, when anyone picks up a phone, the screen’s contents are displayed on a wall as the lights fade, muting the friends onstage.
    — Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker, 9 July 2026
Definition of muting
Verb
  • The school's head teacher, Krzysztof Ochmanski, was injured while subduing the teenager, officials said.
    — James Cirrone, FOXNews.com, 8 Oct. 2026
  • The handful of Israeli passengers grappled with the copilot for several minutes before subduing him and binding his hands with the cord from a set of headphones.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 2 Oct. 2026
Definition of subduing
Verb
  • Nelson remembers hushing her foster children back to sleep that night and calling 911, anxious for an end to those sleepless nights.
    — Kendrick Calfee, Kansas City Star, 2 Sep. 2026
  • If you’re used to traditional decluttering strategies that focus on sorting and purging, house hushing might feel strange.
    — Mary Cornetta, Better Homes & Gardens, 10 July 2026
Definition of hushing
Verb
  • Egyptian authorities alternated over the decades between tolerating and repressing the group, which was permitted to field candidates in elections for brief periods.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 2 Oct. 2026
  • When elites are strong, dictators need to accommodate them, often by repressing outsiders to shield insiders from potential challenges.
    — José Kaire, The Conversation, 17 July 2026
Definition of repressing

Browse Nearby Words

silences
silencing
silent
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Silencing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/silencing. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of outlandish

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 9
See More

Popular

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
a cup of tea and a golf ball on tee side by side
Quiz: Sounds Like... Choose the word that sounds like it fits the clue...
See All