calm
pronunciation
How to pronounce calm in British English:
UK [kɑːm]
How to pronounce calm in American English:
US [kɑːm]
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- Noun:
- steadiness of mind under stress
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- Verb:
- make calm or still
- make steady
- become quiet or calm, especially after a state of agitation
- cause to be calm or quiet as by administering a sedative to
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- Adjective:
- not agitated; without losing self-possession
- characterized by absence of emotional agitation
- (of weather) free from storm or wind
- marked by freedom from agitation or excitement
Word Origin
- calm
- calm: [14] The underlying meaning of calm seems to be not far removed from ‘siesta’. It comes ultimately from Greek kauma ‘heat’, which was borrowed into late Latin as cauma. This appears to have been applied progressively to the ‘great heat of the midday sun’, to ‘rest taken during this period’, and finally to simply ‘quietness, absence of activity’. Cauma passed into Old Italian as calma, and English seems to have got the word from Italian.
- calm (adj.)
- late 14c., from Old French calme "tranquility, quiet," traditionally from Old Italian calma, from Late Latin cauma "heat of the mid-day sun" (in Italy, a time when everything rests and is still), from Greek kauma "heat" (especially of the sun), from kaiein "to burn" (see caustic). Spelling influenced by Latin calere "to be hot." Figurative application to social or mental conditions is 16c.
- calm (n.)
- late 14c., from Old French calme, carme "stillness, quiet, tranquility," from the adjective (see calm (adj.)).
- calm (v.)
- late 14c., from Old French calmer or from calm (adj.). Related: Calmed; calming.
Example
- 1. How do you keep calm in such a cutthroat industry ?
- 2. Stay cool , calm , and collected , " cavaiola advises . "
- 3. A fragile calm held in cairo on thursday .
- 4. At this point the reader is filled with something not unlike calm relief .
- 5. The patients often seem happier and more calm .