"break the silence" meaning in English

See break the silence in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: breaks the silence [present, singular, third-person], breaking the silence [participle, present], broke the silence [past], broken the silence [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|break<,,broke,broken> the silence}} break the silence (third-person singular simple present breaks the silence, present participle breaking the silence, simple past broke the silence, past participle broken the silence)
  1. To start talking in a conversation after a period where nobody speaks. Categories (topical): Talking
    Sense id: en-break_the_silence-en-verb-Fnn6NKXH Disambiguation of Talking: 53 47
  2. To state an opinion on a subject that has been taboo for a period of time. Categories (topical): Silence, Talking
    Sense id: en-break_the_silence-en-verb-r3Dru5C2 Disambiguation of Silence: 22 78 Disambiguation of Talking: 53 47 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 9 91

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for break the silence meaning in English (2.6kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "breaks the silence",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "breaking the silence",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broke the silence",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broken the silence",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "break<,,broke,broken> the silence"
      },
      "expansion": "break the silence (third-person singular simple present breaks the silence, present participle breaking the silence, simple past broke the silence, past participle broken the silence)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "53 47",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Talking",
          "orig": "en:Talking",
          "parents": [
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Both men waited for the captain to make a decision. Finally, Dean broke the silence. \"We need to know what to do, Captain! Before we sink!"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1990, Depeche Mode (lyrics and music), “Enjoy the Silence”, in Violator",
          "text": "Words, like violence, / Break the silence / Come crashing in, / Into my little world",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To start talking in a conversation after a period where nobody speaks."
      ],
      "id": "en-break_the_silence-en-verb-Fnn6NKXH",
      "links": [
        [
          "talking",
          "talking"
        ],
        [
          "conversation",
          "conversation"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "9 91",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "22 78",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Silence",
          "orig": "en:Silence",
          "parents": [
            "Sound",
            "Energy",
            "Nature",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "53 47",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Talking",
          "orig": "en:Talking",
          "parents": [
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2012 June 19, Julian Baggini, “Why it's not the Dalai Lama's job to break the silence on Tibet”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "The Free Tibet campaign is calling on world leaders to break the silence, claiming they \"continue to refrain from publicly speaking out for Tibet\".",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To state an opinion on a subject that has been taboo for a period of time."
      ],
      "id": "en-break_the_silence-en-verb-r3Dru5C2",
      "links": [
        [
          "state",
          "state"
        ],
        [
          "opinion",
          "opinion"
        ],
        [
          "taboo",
          "taboo"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "break the silence"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "en:Silence",
    "en:Talking"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "breaks the silence",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "breaking the silence",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broke the silence",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broken the silence",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "break<,,broke,broken> the silence"
      },
      "expansion": "break the silence (third-person singular simple present breaks the silence, present participle breaking the silence, simple past broke the silence, past participle broken the silence)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Both men waited for the captain to make a decision. Finally, Dean broke the silence. \"We need to know what to do, Captain! Before we sink!"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1990, Depeche Mode (lyrics and music), “Enjoy the Silence”, in Violator",
          "text": "Words, like violence, / Break the silence / Come crashing in, / Into my little world",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To start talking in a conversation after a period where nobody speaks."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "talking",
          "talking"
        ],
        [
          "conversation",
          "conversation"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2012 June 19, Julian Baggini, “Why it's not the Dalai Lama's job to break the silence on Tibet”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "The Free Tibet campaign is calling on world leaders to break the silence, claiming they \"continue to refrain from publicly speaking out for Tibet\".",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To state an opinion on a subject that has been taboo for a period of time."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "state",
          "state"
        ],
        [
          "opinion",
          "opinion"
        ],
        [
          "taboo",
          "taboo"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "break the silence"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.