Word.ws English Dictionary

stillness

Syllables: still·ness/ˈstɪlnəs/

stillness noun: the quality or state of being still.

stillness: white and black bird flying beside trees during daytime
Photo by Timothy Dachraoui on Unsplash

Noun

stillness (countable and uncountable, plural stillnesses)

  1. The quality or state of being still.
    • The teru-tero (Vanellus cayanensis), is another bird, which often disturbs the stillness of the night.1839, Charles Darwin, Journal and remarks: 1832-1836, volume 3, page 133
    • It resembled them in the sense that it was not ended, when it was past, but continued to unfold, in Watt's head, from beginning to end, over and over again, the complex connexions of its lights and shadows, the passing from silence to sound and from sound to silence, the stillness before the...1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC
  2. Habitual silence or quiet; taciturnity.
    • The grauitie, and ſtillneſſe of your youth / The world hath noted.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • Like a heartbeat drives you mad / In the stillness of remembering what you had / And what you lost1977, Stevie Nicks, “Dreams”, in Rumours, performed by Fleetwood Mac
    Synonyms:
    quietness, silence

stillness meaning in Hindi, Bengali and Malayalam

stillness in Hindi

stillness, silence
सुन्न sunn

stillness in Bengali

নিস্তব্ধতা, স্থিরতা

stillness in Malayalam

quality or state of being still
നിശ്ചലത niścalata

Examples of stillness in a sentence

  • A sudden stillness came on them both, a sense of something momentous that must happen.
  • A piercing scream broke in upon the stillness of the editorial sanctum yesterday afternoon.
  • Stroke by stroke, the great familiar monody of that incomparable curfew rose and fell in the stillness.

All 19 example sentences with stillness

Synonyms of stillness

All synonyms of stillness

Forms of stillness

pluralstillnesses
alternative form (obsolete)stillnesse

Origin of stillness

From Middle English stilnesse, from Old English stilnes (“stillness, quiet; absence of noise or disturbance, release, relaxation; silence, abstention from speech; absence of disturbance or molestation, tranquility, peace, security; that which appeases”), equivalent to still + -ness.

Words that rhyme with stillness

Questions about stillness

What does stillness mean?
Stillness means the quality or state of being still.
What is stillness in Hindi?
Stillness in Hindi is सुन्न (sunn). See Stillness meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is stillness?
Stillness is a noun.
How do you pronounce stillness?
Stillness is pronounced /ˈstɪlnəs/.
What is the plural of stillness?
The plural of stillness is stillnesses.

Words near stillness in the dictionary

  1. stillman
  2. Stillman diet
  3. Stillman diets
  4. Stillmans
  5. stillmen
  6. stillness
  7. stillnesses
  8. Stillorgan
  9. stillroom
  10. stillrooms
  11. stills

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stillness (page history and authors); सुन्न (Hindi) (page history and authors); stillness (Bengali Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-AnotherFriendlyHuman-stillness.wav.

Cite this entry: “stillness.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stillness. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.