Dictionary

soundless en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈsaʊn(d)ləs/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Etymology tree English sound Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der. Proto-Germanic *leusaną Proto-Germanic *lausaz Proto-Germanic *-lausaz Proto-West Germanic *-laus Old English -lēas Middle English -les English -less English soundless From sound + -less.

Meanings

1. Without sound.
   • The names of men blow soundless by, My fellows’ and my own. 1896, A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, London: Grant Richards, published 1898, XXXVIII, p. 55:
   • The whole building, with its dark windows and soundless avenues, had an air strikingly forlorn and solitary. 1797, Ann Radcliffe, chapter 7, in The Italian, volume 2, London: T. Cadell Junior & W. Davies, page 225:
   • 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. 1984 August 18, Pam Mitchell, “We Must Not Silence Our Lives”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 6, page 8:
   • 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 […] 1663, Robert Boyle, Some Considerations Touching the Usefulness of Experimental Naturall Philosophy, Oxford: Richard Davis, Essay 2, page 49:
   • 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 […] 1839 September, Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, in Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, volume 5, page 145:
   • 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. 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]:
   • a soundless tableau
2. Not capable of being sounded or fathomed.
   • Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat, Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride; 1609, William Shakespeare, “(please specify the sonnet number)”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
   • This heart’s geography’s map, this limitless small continent, this soundless sea; 1881, Walt Whitman, “Out from Behind This Mask (To Confront a Portrait)”, in Leaves of Grass, London: David Bogue, page 296:
   • the soundless deep
   • 1614, Christopher Brooke, The Ghost of Richard the Third, London: L. Lisle, “The Legend of Richard the Third,” Nor Wits, nor Chronicles could ere containe, The Hell-deepe Reaches, of my soundlesse Braine.

Forms

Deriveds

soundlessly · soundlessness

Relateds

sound

Synonyms

depthless · unfathomable · silent · bottomless · noiseless · fathomless · unsoundable

Translations (32)

da stille (without sound) · nn ljodlaus (without sound) · ru беззву́чный (without sound) · da tyst (without sound) · bg безшумен (without sound) · pl bezszelestny (without sound) · nl geruisloos (without sound) · pl bezgłośny (without sound) · gl insonoro (without sound) · eo sensona (without sound) · sv ljudlös (without sound) · nb lydlaus (without sound) · nl geluidloos (without sound) · grc ἄθροος (without sound) · da støjløs (without sound) · da lydløs (without sound) · es insonoro (without sound) · fi äänetön (without sound) · de lautlos (without sound) · pl bezdźwięczny (without sound) · bg беззвучен (without sound) · grc ἄψοφος (without sound) · mi haumūmū (without sound) · nn lydlaus (without sound) · pt insonoro (without sound) · it insonoro (without sound) · tr sessiz (without sound) · ru бесшу́мный (without sound) · ca insonor (without sound) · lt begarsis (without sound) · de geräuschlos (without sound) · nb lydløs (without sound)