Freedom from disturbance, conflict, or troubling thoughts.
Freedom from disturbance, conflict, or troubling thoughts — broad inner calm; also the absence of war.
The broad, encompassing term for freedom from disturbance, conflict, or anxiety — wide-ranging inner calm (“inner peace,” “peace of mind”), more global and less specific than its near-synonyms. Unlike relief, it is a sustained condition, not an after-the-fact easing; unlike placidity, no implication of blandness; unlike ease, it centers on absence of disturbance rather than absence of difficulty; and unlike composure or equanimity it can describe a person, a relationship, a place, or a whole community.
Freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts and emotions — peace of mind.
Attested from c. 1200.
The absence or cessation of war or hostility; an agreement ending it.
The dominant public sense, by 1300; a peace treaty by c. 1400.
Civil order (“breach of the peace”); also a greeting or blessing (“peace be with you”).
The earliest English sense was civil order (mid-12c.); the greeting renders Hebrew shalom via Latin pax.
Mid-12c. “freedom from civil disorder,” from Latin pacem (pax) “treaty of peace, tranquility, absence of war,” from PIE *pag- “to fasten” — perhaps “a binding together” by treaty. It replaced Old English frith.
Entered with the civil/legal sense (“internal peace of a nation,” mid-12c.); the inward “peace of mind” sense is from c. 1200, and “absence of war” by 1300. Later fixed phrases include Peace Corps (1962) and the peace sign (1968). No reliable recent-generation shift.