#silence

• One thing is to conceal, another to be silent — A famous Latin expression originating from Cicero's writings (De Officiis), literally translated as 'one thing is to conceal, another to be silent'. In a legal and moral sense, the maxim establishes a clear distinction between the deliberate, fraudulent act of hiding an essential truth that one is obligated to reveal (constituting fraud or bad faith) and simple passive silence or omission regarding facts that one is not legally or contractually bound to disclose.
• Speechlessness — A state of temporary or permanent muteness; a sudden inability to speak or utter sounds, caused by a physical condition, a strong emotional shock, fear, or profound astonishment. Figuratively, it represents a deep, oppressive, and generalized silence settling over a group of people or an environment.
• To fall silent — To become mute, to stop speaking, to suddenly fall silent due to an emotion, a command, or a physical condition. As a transitive verb, it represents the act of silencing someone, shutting someone up, or making a noise or device stop emitting sounds. In a broader sense, it describes the total cessation of any sound or communicational activity.
• Silenced — Having fallen silent; a person who has stopped speaking or who has lost the ability to utter sounds due to an intense emotional state (astonishment, fear, shock) or an external action. In an environmental or technical sense, it describes a place devoid of noise, a device stopped from transmitting, or a criticism that has been completely neutralized.
• Sudden silence — The result of the action of falling silent; a sudden and unexpected silence settling within a group of people or an environment following a shock, surprise, or fright. In a local sense, it can also denote a mild or temporary form of aphasia or muteness caused by a psychological trauma.