What's the difference between mute and silent?

Mute


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To cast off; to molt.
  • (v. t. & i.) To eject the contents of the bowels; -- said of birds.
  • (n.) The dung of birds.
  • (a.) Not speaking; uttering no sound; silent.
  • (a.) Incapable of speaking; dumb.
  • (a.) Not uttered; unpronounced; silent; also, produced by complete closure of the mouth organs which interrupt the passage of breath; -- said of certain letters. See 5th Mute, 2.
  • (a.) Not giving a ringing sound when struck; -- said of a metal.
  • (n.) One who does not speak, whether from physical inability, unwillingness, or other cause.
  • (n.) One who, from deafness, either congenital or from early life, is unable to use articulate language; a deaf-mute.
  • (n.) A person employed by undertakers at a funeral.
  • (n.) A person whose part in a play does not require him to speak.
  • (n.) Among the Turks, an officer or attendant who is selected for his place because he can not speak.
  • (n.) A letter which represents no sound; a silent letter; also, a close articulation; an element of speech formed by a position of the mouth organs which stops the passage of the breath; as, p, b, d, k, t.
  • (n.) A little utensil made of brass, ivory, or other material, so formed that it can be fixed in an erect position on the bridge of a violin, or similar instrument, in order to deaden or soften the tone.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Such conditions may influence the personality of offspring of deaf-mute people.
  • (2) No wonder public discussion of this most unexpected scientific development has so far been muted and respectful, waiting for the expert community that discovered the anomaly by accident – the Opera experiment at Gran Sasso was devised to isolate different varieties of neutrino, not to test Einstein – to work out what it all means, or doesn't.
  • (3) But its protests were far more muted than the complaints which saw off plans for drills there earlier this year.
  • (4) to produce speech for the mute, man-machine communication through speech in industry control, data processing systems and uses in audiological diagnostics.
  • (5) Ten months on, reactions are likely to be more muted.
  • (6) When it transpired that he had, if not in the way he might have wanted, he and his corner leapt in the air, before the realization of the ugly mood of the crowd muted the celebrations.
  • (7) Likewise, his criticism of Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill , which proposed the death penalty for same-sex acts, was muted.
  • (8) Nobody is sure what dangerous chemical imbalance this would create but the Fiver is convinced we'd all be dust come October or November, the earth scorched, with only three survivors roaming o'er the barren landscape: Govan's answer to King Lear, ranting into a hole in the ground; a mute, wild-eyed pundit, staring without blinking into a hole in the ground; and a tall, irritable figure standing in front of the pair of them, screaming in the style popularised by Klaus Kinski, demanding they take a look at his goddamn trouser arrangement, which he has balanced here on the platform of his hand for easy perusal, or to hell with them, for they are no better than pigs, worthless, spineless pigs.
  • (9) Additional studies revealed that the muted effects of PTHrP occurred via a PTH-independent mechanism.
  • (10) Winning a majority muted that speculation without eradicating the ambitions that fuelled it.
  • (11) Eight of 9 Mute swans (Cygnus olor) untied in the river acrossing the central part of Tottori-city died within the period of 40 days of summer in 1989.
  • (12) While calling for an end to the violence and democratic reform, western and other Arab countries have mostly muted their criticism of the killings and repression in Syria for fear of destabilising the country, which plays a strategic role across the Middle East.
  • (13) Another sci-fi film, Mute, which he describes as "my love letter to Blade Runner", is already in development and will be filmed in Berlin.
  • (14) It appeared, however, that she was muting her resistance to an expanded if limited ECB role, clearing the way for central bank and International Monetary Fund interventions that might take the edge off the immediate emergency and provide a breathing space for a more systemic political response.
  • (15) Indeed, the language of the ethic of care may give a voice to nurses who previously felt morally mute.
  • (16) Lysosomal enzyme secretion in response to thrombin treatment was partially reduced in muted platelets and markedly reduced in mocha platelets.
  • (17) Sandwood Bay in Scotland Photograph: Alamy Am Buachaille, a rocky sea stack, stood guard-like to one side, the giant grey slabs which cut into the sea were bathed in frothing waves, and the dim glow of the Cape Wrath lighthouse sent out a muted white beam beyond the cliffs to my right.
  • (18) Even in the wake of Newtown, the shift toward gun safety policies has been relatively muted .
  • (19) Violence, public and domestic, in peace and war, is muted by the modulated tones of civilised life.
  • (20) If I had been seeing red upon learning the dark projections for my health, my world was returning to its known colors, now muted with that knowledge that comes eventually for everyone: that the body is not the friend you thought was.

Silent


Definition:

  • (a.) Free from sound or noise; absolutely still; perfectly quiet.
  • (a.) Not speaking; indisposed to talk; speechless; mute; taciturn; not loquacious; not talkative.
  • (a.) Keeping at rest; inactive; calm; undisturbed; as, the wind is silent.
  • (a.) Not pronounced; having no sound; quiescent; as, e is silent in "fable."
  • (a.) Having no effect; not operating; inefficient.
  • (n.) That which is silent; a time of silence.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) First results let us assume that clinically silent TIAs also (in analogy to clinically silent brain infarctions) could be detected and located.
  • (2) The prevalence of greater than or equal to 1 mm ST-segment depression was 22% (symptomatic in 25%, and silent in 75%) and did not differ between groups with and without cardiac events.
  • (3) The EMG silent periods (SP) produced in the open-close-clench cycle and jaw-jerk reflex were compared for duration before and after treatment with an occlusal bite splint.
  • (4) Some features suggest an important reduction in myocardial oxygen supply, in addition to an increase in demand, as a mechanism for silent ischemic episodes occurring during daily life.
  • (5) Major alleviation of the rigidity and bradykinesia with chronic oral l-dopa therapy was not accompanied by any change in the silent period.
  • (6) Previous studies in Ghana had shown that primary infections with Epstein-Barr virus in infants under the age of two years remain silent and evoke antibody responses different from those seen in infectious mononucleosis.
  • (7) A light rain pattered the rooftops of Los Mochis in Friday’s pre-dawn darkness, the town silent and still as the Sea of Cortez lapped its shore.
  • (8) Silent myocardial ischemia is increasingly recognized as a common phenomenon in a variety of people with coronary artery disease.
  • (9) In addition, comparison of the rates of evolution among the eight viral genes, excluding the P2 gene, revealed a rapid and roughly equal rate of silent substitution for different genes.
  • (10) Recurrent stones are usually "silent," and we do not usually treat asymptomatic stones.
  • (11) He stayed silent when the teacher asked him a question and afterwards I found him standing in the middle of the classroom looking totally lost as everyone ran around.
  • (12) A total of 188 ischemic episodes was observed; 163 (87%) were silent and accounted for a total ischemic duration of 5,771 minutes.
  • (13) Thirty-two nursing students were shown silent films in which 10 normal and 10 schizophrenic women described a happy, sad, and an angry personal experience.
  • (14) Repair within the gene was shown to be much more efficient than that in silent downstream sequences or in the genome overall.
  • (15) The non-neurosecretory interneuron L10 synthesizes a 12,000 dalton protein, whereas the silent neurosecretory cell L5 synthesizes a lower molecular weight peptide.
  • (16) To date, no systematic study on silent ischaemia in patients with demand-induced right ventricular dysfunction has been reported.
  • (17) Patients with all forms of angina, stable effort and unstable rest angina, and those with coronary artery spasm have very frequent episodes of silent myocardial ischemia during ordinary activity.
  • (18) Hypertensive subjects with other cardiovascular risk factors such as hypercholesterolemia or smoking and with ventricular extrasystoles, reflecting the presence of silent ischemia, can be considered to be at high risk of cardiac death.
  • (19) However, Teryn Norris and Jesse Jenkins, of the Breakthrough Institute , argue that as the recession has deepened, Obama has been relatively silent on cap and trade emissions schemes similar to the one operating in Europe in which companies can trade permits to emit carbon dioxide.
  • (20) These calcifications are often clinically silent, but they sometimes accompany a recurrence of the initial painful symptomatology.