calm
UK/kɑːm//kɑm/
calm adjective: peaceful, quiet, especially free from anger and anxiety.
Adjective
calm (comparative calmer or more calm, superlative calmest or most calm)
- Peaceful, quiet, especially free from anger and anxiety.
- Free of noise and disturbance.
- Calm is the morn without a sound,
Calm as to suit a calmer grief,
And only thro’ the faded leaf
The chestnut pattering to the ground: […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
- Antonyms:
- disturbed
- Calm is the morn without a sound,
- with few or no waves on the surface; not rippled.
- Without wind or storm.
- Good; alright; cool; OK.
- Hi, welcome to Puma. If you need any help, my name's Kelly. That's calm, man[…]Thirty pounds is the limit, I think you'll pay no more, I'm sorry. Aight, fuck it! What, can I do chip and pin. Calm, I'ma put my pin in like boom!2017, “Uber Everywhere Freestyle 2”performed by Cadet (rapper)
- Been living my life as a Kingpin. I'm calm with the heat of the kitchen.2019 May 9, “Bullet from a Gun” (track 1), in Ignorance is Bliss, performed by Skepta
Noun (1)
calm (countable and uncountable, plural calms)
- The state of being calm; peacefulness; absence of worry, anger, fear or other strong negative emotion.
- Calm on the seas, and silver sleep,
And waves that sway themselves in rest,
And dead calm in that noble breast
Which heaves but with the heaving deep.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
- Calm on the seas, and silver sleep,
- The state of being calm; absence of noise and disturbance.
- The absence of wind; a period of time without wind.
- The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 4:39
- It was a calm ; so, forming a tandem of three boats, we commenced the slow business of towing the trophy to the Pequod.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 64, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 324
Verb
calm (third-person singular simple present calms, present participle calming, simple past and past participle calmed)
- To make calm.
- to calm a crying baby
- to calm the passions
- To become calm.
Noun (2) capitalized: CALM
CALM (plural CALMs)
- Initialism of café au lait macule.
calm meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Assamese and Arabic
calm in Hindi
- free from anger and anxiety
- शांत śānt
- free of noise and disturbance
- शांत śānt
- (of water) with few or no waves on the surface
- शांत śānt
calm in Urdu
- پرسکون
calm in Assamese
- free from anger and anxiety
- শান্ত xanto, শাঁত xãt
calm in Arabic
- free from anger and anxiety
- هَادِئ hādiʔ
- to make calm
- طَمْأَنَ
More languagesFewer languages
- calm in Malay
- tenang
- calm in Persian
- آرام ârâm
Examples of calm in a sentence
- Around midday the storm broke, and the afternoon was calm and sunny.
- The ship could make 20 knots an hour in calm seas.
- By the use of tact, she was able to calm her jealous husband.
Synonyms of calm
- steady
- collected
- composed
- cool-headed
- equable
- equanimous
- equanimitable
- even-keeled
- even-minded
- even-tempered
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of calm
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | calmer |
| comparative | more calm |
| superlative | calmest |
| superlative | most calm |
| alternative form (obsolete) | calme |
| Noun | |
| plural | calms |
| plural | CALMs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | calms |
| present participle | calming |
| past participle | calmed |
| past | calmed |
Origin of calm
From Middle English calm, calme, from Middle French calme, probably from Old Italian calma, of uncertain origin. Calma may derive from Late Latin cauma (“heat of the midday sun”), from Ancient Greek καῦμα (kaûma, “heat, especially of the sun”), from καίω (kaíō, “to burn”), or possibly from Latin caleō. Compare also Lombardic *chalm, *chalma (“frozenness”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *kalmaz (“frozenness, cold”). Displaced native Middle English smilte (“quiet, still, gentle”) from Old English smylte (“quiet, tranquil, calm, serene”).
Words formed from calm
Phrases with calm
Words that rhyme with calm
Questions about calm
- What does calm mean?
- Calm means peaceful, quiet, especially free from anger and anxiety.
- What is calm in Hindi?
- Calm in Hindi is शांत (śānt). See Calm meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is calm?
- Calm can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce calm?
- Calm is pronounced /kɑm/ (US).
Words near calm in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: calm (page history and authors); CALM (page history and authors); calm (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-calm.ogg.
Cite this entry: “calm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/calm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.