speech is silver, silence is golden
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
It is often better to remain silent than to speak
Literally: speech is comparable to silver, silence to gold
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
She decided that speech is silver, silence is golden and didn't comment on the controversy
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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “speech is silver, silence is golden” mean?
It is often better to remain silent than to speak Literally: speech is comparable to silver, silence to gold
Is “speech is silver, silence is golden” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.