Calm
Calm verb - To free from distress or disturbance.
Usage example: the president's reassuring words did much to calm the public during the national emergency
Lay
Lay verb - To arrange something in a certain spot or position.
Calm is a synonym for lay in allay topic. Sometimes you can use "Calm" instead a verb "Lay", if it concerns topics such as make smooth.
Common collocations
Both words in one sentence
- Better to lay the blame at the feet of a dirty, unshaven, wild-eyed starets of peasant stock from God-Knows-Where, whose intensity and seemingly magical ability to enchant women (and calm the Tsarevich) could easily be the work of the Devil.
- New Brian retorts that Stewie's teddy bear Rupert seemed to like him while he was humping him last night, as "he just lay there and took it." Stewie remains calm and silent for a moment, then the scene cuts to him dragging a blood-stained trash bag out to the curb.
Source: Post-Rape Taunt -
Blue tries to keep calm in the face of adversity by the New Republic rebellion, against his forces with the Federation of Chorus, and later while working together with the former rebels, against Charon Industries' attempt to lay waste to their world, but tends to have a difficult time of it.
Source: Stiff Upper Lip
Cite this Source
Lay and Calm. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 22, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/calm/lay
Calm & Lay. N.p., 2016. Web. 22 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/calm/lay>.
Lay or Calm. 2016. Accessed July 22, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/calm/lay.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "calm" and "lay" have occurred on timeline