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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

suicide.

The act of intentionally killing oneself.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈs(j)uːɪˌsaɪd/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsuɪˌsaɪd/Canada, General-American/ˈsʉːɪˌsɑed/Australia[ˈsʉːəˌsɑe̯d]New-Zealand
  1. The act of intentionally killing oneself.

    uncountable
  2. A particular instance of a person intentionally killing oneself, or of multiple people doing so.

    countable
  3. A person who has intentionally killed themself.

    countable
  4. An action that could cause the literal or figurative death of a person or organization, although death may not be the aim of the action.

    countable · figuratively · uncountable
    political suicide
  5. A beverage combining all available flavors at a soda fountain.

    US · countable · slang
  6. A diabolo trick where one of the sticks is released and allowed to rotate 360° round the diabolo until it is caught by the hand that released it.

    countable · uncountable
  7. A run comprising a series of sprints of increasing lengths, each followed immediately by a return to the start, with no pause between one sprint and the next.

    countable
    The coach makes us run suicides at the end of each basketball practice.
  8. A children's game of throwing a ball against a wall and at other players, who are eliminated by being struck.

    countable · uncountable
  9. Pertaining to a suicide bombing.

    attributive · countable · uncountable
    suicide belt
    suicide vest
Where this word comes from

First attested in Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (1643) in noun sense 1, ostensibly from New Latin suīcīdium, from suī (genitive reflexive pronoun) + -cīdium (“act of killing or murder”), but often believed to have originated in English before entering Latin. Displaced native Middle English seolf-cwale from Old English selfcwalu (literally “self-slaughter”), after which suicide may have been modelled, or calqued (compare manuscript). Noun sense 3 is perhaps by analogy with words like homicide, patricide (see -cide), or, although unlikely, from Medieval Latin suīcīda; see the Etymology section at suīcīdium.

verb/ˈs(j)uːɪˌsaɪd/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsuɪˌsaɪd/Canada, General-American/ˈsʉːɪˌsɑed/Australia[ˈsʉːəˌsɑe̯d]New-Zealand
  1. To intentionally kill oneself.

    intransitive
  2. To kill (someone) and make their death appear to have been a suicide rather than a homicide (now especially as part of a conspiracy).

    transitive
  3. To destroy or self-destruct.

    ambitransitive · figuratively
Where this word comes from

First attested in Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (1643) in noun sense 1, ostensibly from New Latin suīcīdium, from suī (genitive reflexive pronoun) + -cīdium (“act of killing or murder”), but often believed to have originated in English before entering Latin. Displaced native Middle English seolf-cwale from Old English selfcwalu (literally “self-slaughter”), after which suicide may have been modelled, or calqued (compare manuscript). Noun sense 3 is perhaps by analogy with words like homicide, patricide (see -cide), or, although unlikely, from Medieval Latin suīcīda; see the Etymology section at suīcīdium.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.