taire
French, verb/tɛʁ/
taire is a French verb meaning “to be quiet, to be silent” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Ne pas dire ; passer sous silence”.
What does taire mean in English?
verb
- 1
to be quiet, to be silent
faire taire
- 2
to shut up (oneself), to be quiet, to fall silent, to stop talking
Tais-toi!
- 3
to keep (a matter) quiet, to keep secret, not to say
Je l'ai entendu de quelqu'un dont je préfère taire le nom.
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Ne pas dire ; passer sous silence. 2. Maitriser un sentiment ; le contraindre au silence. 3. (Utilisé uniquement dans faire taire) Ne pas faire de bruit ; en ce sens, il se dit des animaux, et généralement de tout ce qui est capable de faire du bruit. 4. Garder le silence, s’abstenir de parler.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of taire
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- taisant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- tu participle past
- tais first-person indicative present
- tait indicative present singular
- taisons first-person indicative plural
- taisez indicative plural present
- taisent indicative plural present
- taisais first-person imperfect indicative
- taisait imperfect indicative singular
- taisions first-person imperfect indicative
- taisiez imperfect indicative plural
- taisaient imperfect indicative plural
- tus first-person historic indicative
- tut historic indicative past
- tûmes first-person historic indicative
- tûtes historic indicative past
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce taire?
- /tɛʁ/
- \tɛʁ\
- [sø tɛʁ]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is taire in French?
taire appears 14 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).