Past tense of suffocate
regular verb
The past tense of suffocate is suffocated. The past participle is also suffocated.
Forms of suffocate
| Base form (V1) | suffocate /ˈsʌfəkeɪt/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | suffocated |
| Past participle (V3) | suffocated |
| Present participle | suffocating /ˈsʌfəkeɪtɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | suffocates |
Suffocated in a sentence
- He suffocated his wife by holding a pillow over her head.
- It was amazingly difficult to do; she was almost being suffocated.1997 September 13, w...@why.not, “Four Cowboys”, in alt.sex.stories (Usenet). From the entry manscent
- Suffocated by the stinksome whiff of too much broccoli!2020, James Patterson, Steven Butler, Dog Diaries. From the entry stinksome
- Flair and invention were very much at a premium, suffocated by the relentless pace and often fractious nature of proceedings.2014 November 14, Stephen Halliday, “Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero”, in The Scotsman. From the entry department
- They crane their cigaretted hands to their mouths in unison and share the same eerie glow of suffocated defeat.2008, Ibi Kaslik, The Angel Riots, Penguin Canada, →ISBN, page 229. From the entry cigaretted
Meaning of suffocate
- verb To suffer, or cause someone to suffer, from severely reduced oxygen intake to the body.
- verb To die due to, or kill someone by means of, insufficient oxygen supply to the body.
- verb To overwhelm, or be overwhelmed (by a person or issue), as though with oxygen deprivation.
Questions about the past tense of suffocate
- What is the past tense of suffocate?
- The past tense of suffocate is suffocated.
- What is the past participle of suffocate?
- The past participle of suffocate is suffocated.
- Is suffocate a regular or irregular verb?
- Suffocate is a regular verb: its past tense adds -d.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: suffocate (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of suffocate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/suffocate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.