soundless

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English

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Etymology

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From sound +‎ -less.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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soundless (comparative more soundless, superlative most soundless)

  1. Without sound.
    Synonyms: noiseless, silent
    a soundless tableau
    • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
      Cassius. [] for your words, they rob the Hybla bees,
      And leave them honeyless.
      Antony. Not stingless too.
      Brutus. O yes, and soundless too;
      For you have stol’n their buzzing, Antony,
      And very wisely threat before you sting.
    • 1663, Robert Boyle, Some Considerations Touching the Usefulness of Experimental Naturall Philosophy[1], Oxford: Richard Davis, Essay 2, page 49:
      The Psalmist observes, That the Heavens declare the glory of God: And indeed, they celebrate his Praises, though with a soundless Voice, yet with so loud a one [] to our intellectual Ears, that he scruples not to affirm, that There is no Speech nor Language where their voice is not heard []
    • 1797, Ann Radcliffe, chapter 7, in The Italian[2], volume 2, London: T. Cadell Junior & W. Davies, page 225:
      The whole building, with its dark windows and soundless avenues, had an air strikingly forlorn and solitary.
    • 1839 September, Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, in Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, volume 5, page 145:
      During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hang oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country []
    • 1896, A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad[3], London: Grant Richards, published 1898, XXXVIII, p. 55:
      The names of men blow soundless by,
      My fellows’ and my own.
    • 1984 August 18, Pam Mitchell, “We Must Not Silence Our Lives”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 6, page 8:
      All day a woman across the room from me has been rolling up her pages scroll-like and smoothing them out as soundless tears cascade down her face.
  2. Not capable of being sounded or fathomed.
    Synonyms: bottomless, depthless, fathomless, unfathomable, unsoundable
    the soundless deep

Derived terms

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Translations

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