peaceful

Pluralpeacefuls

1. 1
   adjective

   Not at war, and not troubled by conflict, strife, or violent unrest.

   The region remained peaceful throughout the decade of negotiations.

   A peaceful transfer of power followed the disputed election.

   Similarnonviolent, peaceable, calm, orderly

   Oppositewarring

   Note

   The core sense, and a plain piece of word-building: Middle English peesful or pesful, simply peace plus -ful. Its opposites are warring and at war, which shows how often it describes public life: regions, protests, transfers of power. It compares either way, as more peaceful or peacefuller and most peaceful or peacefullest.

2. 2
   adjective

   Marked by stillness and calm, with no movement or commotion.

   The garden lay peaceful at dawn, not a single leaf stirring.

   Her face looked peaceful as she slept by the window.

   Similarcalm, quiet, tranquil, still, placid

   Oppositeagitated, troubled, turbulent, noisy

3. 3
   adjective

   Naturally disposed toward peace and reluctant to enter into conflict.

   By temperament she was peaceful, always preferring to talk things through.

   The peaceful protesters refused to answer insults with violence.

   Similarpeaceable, pacifist, dovish, pacific, unaggressive

   Oppositebelligerent, violent

   Note

   Here the peace belongs to a temperament rather than to a situation. Its closest neighbors are peaceable and pacific, and dovish, irenic and pacifistic share the ground. A peaceful protest sits between this and the "not at war" meaning. It names protesters who choose not to answer provocation with violence.

4. 4
   nounoffensiveIndiacountable

   An offensive term for a Muslim, especially one implying a violent member of a radical Islamist group.

   He was fired after calling a coworker a peaceful during the argument.

   The graffiti scrawled across the mosque branded the congregation peacefuls.

   Note

   An Internet slur from India, built by sarcasm on the derogatory phrase "religion of peace". Calling someone a peaceful turns the adjective against its own meaning. Raghu Karnad, writing in The Wire in 2021, calls it a smirking euphemism used to slip hate speech past Twitter's filter. It is offensive in any use. The plural is peacefuls.

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