unspoken accusation
- noun
:
acusación tácita
- Even though no words were exchanged, the tension in the room created an unspoken accusation between them.
Examples
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His silence spoke volumes, filled with unspoken accusations that neither of them dared to mention.
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Silence, anger, unspoken accusations, and then spoken accusations:
Fiction book (1999) -
During their conversation, she felt an unspoken accusation hanging in the air, making her uneasy.
Synonyms
43
8.0
A remark that hints something bad about someone
18
7.2
A quiet suggestion that someone did something wrong
A hint that someone did something wrong
How Expressed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and transparently derived from 'unspoken' (not verbally expressed) + 'accusation' (an assertion someone did wrong); together they straightforwardly denote an implied or hinted accusation. This adjective+noun composition follows regular semantic combination and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand it.
Etymology
The phrase unspoken accusation paints a simple image: unspoken means no words and accusation means blame, like when a room goes quiet and people stare so the blame hangs in the air. That's why unspoken accusation means 'a blame that is understood but not said'.