The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 letter word VOICELESS
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
V
O
I
C
E
L
E
S
S
More clues leading to the result VOICELESS
- Not immoral about old lacking representation
- Unable to speak, five officers originally melted?
- Silent virginal captivating orchestra leader
- Totally innocent about love, so unable to speak
- Mum has no opinion?
- Clive is dancing, has a ball at India perhaps; in the beginnning, subjects’ suffering was muted
- Very old diamonds kept with the French sons who cannot speak
- Dumb little mammals consuming cool shrew’s head
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Unable to speak" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case unable to speak = voiceless.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does VOICELESS mean?
VOICELESS adjective- Lacking a voice, without vocal sound.
- Without a vote; having no input into a decision.
- (of a consonant) Spoken without vibration of the vocal cords; unvoiced, surd. Examples: [t], [s], [f].