the.com/moment of silence

means A brief period in which a group deliberately stops talking and stays still to honor someone who died or something tragic that happened.

from The practice draws on much older funerary customs of pausing ordinary activity to mark a death, but the specific phrase and ritualized public form — a crowd or gathering collectively falling silent for a fixed stretch — became widespread in the early 20th century, notably popularized around Armistice Day commemorations after World War I. The words themselves are plain English, just 'moment' (a short span of time, from Latin 'momentum,' a movement or instant) plus 'silence' (from Latin 'silentium'); the power is less in the etymology than in the custom it names.