callado

quiet

adjective kah-YAH-doh Rare

Also means

taciturn

Usage Note

Callado is the past participle of callar used as an adjective, meaning quiet or tight-lipped by disposition. Estar callado = to be (keeping) quiet right now; ser callado = to be a quiet person by nature — the ser/estar distinction matters here. The imperative ¡cállate! (be quiet / shut up) is very common in informal speech.

Examples

"Pedro es muy callado; casi nunca habla."

Natural Translation

Pedro is very quiet; he almost never speaks.

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