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silent movie

silent movie

10 3.2
A film with no recorded sound or spoken words
  • noun
  • /ˈsaɪlənt ˈmuːvi/
  • US
translation icon : película muda
  • Many people enjoy the charm of watching silent movies filled with expressive acting and elaborate title cards.
  • silent movie star
  • silent movie theater
  • silent movie actor

But if we just turn the volume off and watched them like a silent movie, we learn everything we need to learn.

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Examples

  • Classic silent movie music plays over these scenes.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • Your husband said his favorite silent movie star is Rudolph Valentino.

  • This girl took me to a silent movie last night.

  • The perfect setting for a silent movie queen.

  • As I look back on it, I see our life together as a wonderful old silent movie.

  • Jake started out in silent movies.

  • Subsequent literary works featured new approaches to American silent movies from this group.

    Academic text (2017)
  • You've got to go back to German silent movies to find anything like it.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • It belonged to a silent movie star.

  • The video reminds Andrea of a silent movie.

    Fiction book (1994)

Synonyms

silent picture
vssilent movie
1 6.1

A movie made without recorded sound that often has live music

is the same meaning but uses a different common noun
silents
vssilent movie
9.6

Old movies made before sound, using acting and writing on the screen to tell the story

is a broader term not limited to the early pre-sound period

Antonyms

talkie
  • Archaic
47 8.1

A movie with recorded people talking and sound, not silent

Surface Forms

silent movie singular
silent movies plural

Morphology

silent + movie

The meaning 'a film without recorded sound' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'silent' (lacking audible sound) with 'movie' (a film). This adjective+noun composition is a basic, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Silent movie comes from early films that had no recorded sound: the word silent meant 'no recorded sound', so actors used big faces and gestures and short written cards on the screen while the cinema played live music. So, silent movie means a film made 'without spoken dialogue'.