silent majority
silent majority noun: the largest portion of a demographic group or of the population of a political jurisdiction, which is considered to possess political and social views that are not openly declared, but that can nevertheless significantly affect voting patterns and social behavior.
Noun
silent majority (plural silent majorities)
- The largest portion of a demographic group or of the population of a political jurisdiction, which is considered to possess political and social views that are not openly declared, but that can nevertheless significantly affect voting patterns and social behavior.
- Nixon took the field against his critics in his Nov. 3 plea to "the silent majority'" for backing of his Viet Nam policy.1969 November 21, “Nation: The Politics of Polarization”, in Time
- As for leadership, she applauds New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, whose stern law and order policies have won over the "black silent majority," she says.1998 June 7, Judith Levine, "What Went Wrong on the Way to Integration" (book review of Someone Else's House by Tamar Jacoby), Businessweek (retrieved 13 Aug 2012)
- Antonyms:
- vocal minority
- Those who are dead.
- Each man in the long line knows that if an advance is made some of them will not see the sun set, and he cannot shake off the feeling that perhaps his turn has come to join the silent majority.1884 October, George F. Williams, “Lights and Shadows of Army Life”, in The Century Magazine, volume 28, number 6, page 819
- How the mind strives to recollect the true form and features of those old folk who departed from us to join the silent majority before they were plainly photographed upon our childish memories.1899 February, J. A. Benson, “X. A Witch”, in The Land Magazine, volume 3, number 2, London, page 154
silent majority meaning in Malay and Indonesian
silent majority in Malay
- largest portion of a demographic group
- majoriti pasif
silent majority in Indonesian
- largest portion of a demographic group
- mayoritas diam
Examples of silent majority in a sentence
- President Trump believes he represents the “silent majority” of the country against a dangerous, radical minority.2020 July 24, Jamelle Bouie, “There Is a ‘Great Silent Majority.’ But It Stands Against Trump.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- Two decades have passed since those words, rebuking wrong in high places, were uttered, and the speaker has since passed over to the silent majority.1907, Andy Adams, chapter 21, in Reed Anthony: Cowman:
Antonyms of silent majority
Forms of silent majority
| plural | silent majorities |
|---|
Origin of silent majority
Popularized in contemporary usage by U.S. President Richard Nixon in a speech on November 3, 1969. The older sense for "the dead" was used in English since the 19th century, and further back in Latin by the Roman writer Petronius, who wrote abiit ad plures (“he has gone to the majority”) to describe the dead.
Questions about silent majority
- What does silent majority mean?
- Silent majority means the largest portion of a demographic group or of the population of a political jurisdiction, which is considered to possess political and social views that are not openly declared, but that can nevertheless significantly affect voting patterns and social behavior.
- What is silent majority in Malay?
- Silent majority in Malay is majoriti pasif. See Silent majority meaning in Malay.
- How do you use silent majority in a sentence?
- President Trump believes he represents the “silent majority” of the country against a dangerous, radical minority.
- What part of speech is silent majority?
- Silent majority is a noun.
- What is the plural of silent majority?
- The plural of silent majority is silent majorities.
Words near silent majority in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: silent majority (page history and authors). 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.
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Cite this entry: “silent majority.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/silent_majority. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.