dead silence
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Complete silence, often uncomfortable or awkward
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Im lặng hoàn toàn, thường khó chịu hoặc ngượng ngùng
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: silence of death
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The room fell into dead silence after the announcement
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “dead silence” mean?
Complete silence, often uncomfortable or awkward Literally: silence of death
Is “dead silence” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.