silencer

English

Etymology

From silence +‎ -er.

Noun

silencer (plural silencers)

1. Something that silences or (notionally) nearly silences.
   2. An attachment to a gun that reduces the sound it emits.

      Synonym: suppressor

      • 2025 March 26, Hannah Rabinowitz, “DOJ considers abandoning the defense of federal restrictions on gun silencers”, in CNN‎:

        The Justice Department has defended the law for decades, arguing that it doesn’t ban silencers but simply governs how a buyer can acquire one. Still, late last week, prosecutors requested a 30-day pause in the criminal case against a firearms dealer found with an unregistered silencer because “the Department of Justice is re-evaluating its litigation positions regarding silencers.”

   4. The muffler of an internal combustion engine.
      • 1962 April, P. W. B. Semmens, “The Netherlands Railways today”, in Modern Railways, page 241:

        Before the fitting of silencers to these locomotives was completed by the end of 1961, they were very noisy in operation, but the effect of the silencer has been remarkable.

   5. Any of various devices to silence the humming noise of telegraph wires.
   6. (genetics) Something that prevents or greatly reduces gene expression.

Derived terms

• intake silencer

Translations

attachment

Arabic: كَاتِم m (kātim), كَاتِم الصَّوْت m (kātim aṣ-ṣawt) Belarusian: глушы́цель m (hlušýcjelʹ) Bulgarian: заглуши́тел (bg) m (zaglušítel) Catalan: silenciador m Chinese: Mandarin: 消聲器 / 消声器 (zh) (xiāoshēngqì), 消音器 (zh) (xiāoyīnqì) Czech: tlumič m Danish: (firearms) lyddæmper c, (vehicles) lydpotte c Dutch: demper (nl), geluiddemper (nl) m Finnish: äänenvaimennin (fi) French: silencieux (fr) m Georgian: მაყუჩი (maq̇uči) German: Schalldämpfer (de) m Greek: σιγαστήρας (el) m (sigastíras) Hebrew: מַשׁתֵּק m (mashték) Hungarian: hangtompító (hu) Irish: ciúnadóir m Italian: silenziatore (it) m Japanese: 消音器 (ja) (しょうおんき, shōonki), サイレンサー (ja) (sairensā), マフラー (ja) (mafurā) Korean: 소음기 (so'eumgi), 머플러 (meopeulleo) Latvian: slāpētājs m, klusinātājs m Macedonian: приду́шувач m (pridúšuvač), пригу́шувач m (prigúšuvač) Norwegian: Bokmål: lyddemper m, (vehicles, boats) lydpotte m or f Nynorsk: lyddempar m, (vehicles, boats) lydpotte f Polish: tłumik (pl) m Portuguese: silenciador (pt) m Romanian: amortizor (ro) n Russian: глуши́тель (ru) m (glušítelʹ) Sardinian: amudadore m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ауспух m Roman: auspuh m Spanish: silenciador m, silencioso (es) m Swedish: ljuddämpare (sv) c Tagalog: silensyador, pang-alis-ingay, pamatay-tunog Turkish: susturucu (tr) Ukrainian: глушни́к m (hlušnýk) Welsh: distawydd f

something that silences another thing

Dutch: geluiddemper (nl) m Estonian: summuti Finnish: äänenvaimennin (fi) Georgian: გამაჩუმებელი (gamačumebeli) Italian: marmitta (it) f, silenziatore (it) m Portuguese: silenciador (pt) m Serbo-Croatian: prigušivač (sh) m Spanish: silenciador m Tagalog: pamatay-tunog

Anagrams

• licenser, reclines, sclerine