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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

dead air en · NOUN

Pronunciation

Meanings

  1. (idiomatic, uncountable) An unintended interruption in a broadcast during which nothing is transmitted: a silent period on radio or a silent period with no picture on television.
    • They fired the production engineer because too many moments of dead air were interrupting the broadcast.
  2. (broadly, idiomatic, uncountable) A quiet or awkward moment in a conversation where neither individual is speaking.
    • Today we're going to try sitting with silence a bit. Don't worry about any moments of dead air in the conversation.
  3. (uncountable) Air that is subject to little or no ventilation, thus, little to no air exchange.
    • Sealing up the house so perfectly, without planning for any active ventilation to replace the passive ventilation that you have eliminated, is not a good idea, because it encourages pockets of dead air. If you're going to seal it up so tight, then you need to plan for active ventilation through a filter, rather than no ventilation at all.

Deriveds

dead-air space

Relateds

radio silence · crickets · thin air

Synonyms

tumbleweed moment

Translations (1)

hu átmeneti adásszünet (unintended interruption of a broadcast)