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the silence loud enough to change a sentence, a song, or a war

means A temporary stop or break in action, speech, or sound before continuing.

from From Latin 'pausa,' a stopping or halt, itself borrowed from Greek 'pausis,' meaning a ceasing, from 'pauein,' to stop or bring to an end. It traveled through Old French 'pause' before settling into English, carrying the same idea it always had: the deliberate held breath between one thing and the next.

musicThe fermata tells players to hold a note indefinitely
comedyTiming is mostly knowing when to say nothing
tech originPause key dates to early IBM keyboards, now mostly vestigial
brainA 0.5-second pause reads as thoughtful or hostile
music againJohn Cage's 4'33 is pure intentional silence
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