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muteness

muteness

1 6.8
Not speaking because someone cannot or chooses not to speak
  • noun
  • /ˈmjuːtnəs/
translation icon : mudez
  • Marianna's muteness encourages and excuses one of her most subversive activities—her predilection for reading.

Examples

  • The poet seeks refuge in muteness.

    Academic text (2005)
  • My husband said my muteness does not bother him.

  • Her muteness came not because there was too little to say, but because there was too much.

    Academic text (2013)
  • Never think any more about your mother, her pain, and her muteness.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • Why can we not allow their voices to be heard rather than crushing them into muteness?

  • We were silent, and somehow that silence healed my blank muteness of the night before.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Puttermesser sat, a pariah in her muteness, a simpleton.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • But in the last days of February, he was attacked by an impenetrable muteness from which I could not coax him, no matter how hard I tried.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • The husband's inner monologues alternate with the wife's in the novel; however, interestingly enough, their mutual muteness doesn't interfere with their harmonious coexistence.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • Her muteness during the meeting made everyone curious about her thoughts.

Synonyms

silence
vsmuteness
660 2.0

A period with no sound or speech

refers specifically to the state of not speaking as a condition
mutism
vsmuteness
  • Specialized
3 9.2

A condition where a person does not speak because of a physical or mental problem

includes both inability and choice as reasons for not speaking
speechlessness
vsmuteness
1 5.5

Not able to speak because you feel very shocked or upset

is the broader state of not speaking whether by choice or inability
dumbness
vsmuteness
1 5.3

Being unable to speak because of a physical problem or by choice

covers that state but also any other reason for not speaking

Antonyms

655 1.0

The ability to use words with your voice to show thoughts or feelings

8.5

The quality of being expressed in words

Compounds

deaf-muteness
  • Archaic
9.9

A condition in which a person is born unable to hear and so cannot speak

How Silent

silence
660 2.0
muteness
1 6.8
quietness
7 1.0

Surface Forms

muteness singular
mutenesses plural

Morphology

muteness = mute (transparent) = mute + ness

Regular nominalization of the adjective 'mute' by '-ness' meaning the state or condition of being mute.

Etymology

Muteness comes from mute, which comes from the Latin mutus meaning 'silent', and the ending -ness meaning 'state'. So, muteness is the 'state of being silent', whether because someone cannot or chooses not to speak.