Peace is the time when nobody is fighting. Make peace, a peace treaty, peace talks.
It also means quiet and calm: peace and quiet, a moment's peace, leave me in peace. At peace means both not at war and, of somebody who has died, no longer suffering. Note keep the peace, which is a duty of the police and a legal term; hold your peace, meaning to stay silent; peace of mind; and that peace and quiet is one of the most requested things in English and among the hardest to obtain.
1nounpeaceThe time when nobody is fighting.
“After years of war, the people finally had peace.”
2nounquietQuiet and calm.
“The kids are at school, so I can finally work in peace.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
peace is an absence of conflict.
Latin pax comes from a root meaning to fasten or join — the same root as pact and fasten. Peace was originally an agreement binding two sides rather than the absence of anything.
Proto-Indo-European
*peh₂ḱ- — to fasten, stick, place
Latin
pāx — peace
Old French
pais — peace
Anglo-Norman
peis
Middle English
pees
English, today
peace
From Middle English pees, pes, pais, borrowed from Anglo-Norman peis and Old French pais (“peace”), from Latin pāx (“peace”), from Proto-Indo-European peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, stick, place”), related to Latin pacīscor (“agree, stipulate”), Latin pangō (“fasten, fix”); see pact. a doublet of pax. Displaced native sibb, frēols, and broadly ousted friþ (modern frith).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA