What does callar in Spanish mean?

What is the meaning of the word callar in Spanish? The article explains the full meaning, pronunciation along with bilingual examples and instructions on how to use callar in Spanish.

The word callar in Spanish means silence, hush, say nothing, not tell, fall silent, be silent, keep silent, shut up, silence is golden, tell to shut up, never shut up. To learn more, please see the details below.

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Meaning of the word callar

silence, hush

verbo transitivo (silenciar) (colloquial)

(transitive verb: Verb taking a direct object--for example, "Say something." "She found the cat.")
El padre calló a sus hijos para poder leer el periódico en paz.
The father silenced (or; hushed) his children so that he could read the paper in peace.

say nothing, not tell

verbo pronominal (no decir algo) (about [sth])

La víctima se calló el nombre del agresor por miedo a represalias.
The victim said nothing about (or: did not tell) the name of the attacker because she was afraid of retaliation.

fall silent

verbo pronominal (sonido: cesar, apagarse) (sound)

De repente se callaron los cantos de los pájaros, su silencio presagiaba una tormenta.
Suddenly, the bird songs fell silent. Their silence presaged a storm.

be silent, keep silent

verbo intransitivo (guardar silencio)

David siempre calla y escucha, no le gusta acaparar la conversación.
David is always silent (or: always keeps silent). He doesn't like to monopolize the conversation.

shut up

locución verbal (coloquial, ofensivo (callarse)

(intransitive verb: Verb not taking a direct object--for example, "She jokes." "He has arrived.")
Anda, cierra el pico, que me estás mareando.

silence is golden

expresión (si no se sabe, se calla)

(verbal expression: Phrase with special meaning functioning as verb--for example, "put their heads together," "come to an end.")
No digas necedades: es de sabios callar.

tell to shut up

locución verbal (ordenar silencio)

(verbal expression: Phrase with special meaning functioning as verb--for example, "put their heads together," "come to an end.")

never shut up

expresión (hablar demasiado)

(verbal expression: Phrase with special meaning functioning as verb--for example, "put their heads together," "come to an end.")

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Do you know about Spanish

Spanish (español), also known as Castilla, is a language of the Iberian-Romance group of the Romance languages, and the 4th most common language in the world according to Some sources, while others list it as a 2nd or 3rd most common language. It is the mother tongue of about 352 million people, and is spoken by 417 million people when adding its speakers as a language. sub (estimated in 1999). Spanish and Portuguese have very similar grammar and vocabulary; The number of similar vocabulary of these two languages is up to 89%. Spanish is the primary language of 20 countries around the world. It is estimated that the total number of speakers of Spanish is between 470 and 500 million, making it the second most widely spoken language in the world by number of native speakers.