Word.ws English Dictionary

suffer

Syllables: suf·ferUK/ˈsʌfə//ˈsʌfɚ/

suffer verb: to undergo hardship.

Verb

suffer (third-person singular simple present suffers, present participle suffering, simple past and past participle suffered)

  1. (intransitive) To undergo hardship.
    • Many artists suffer before becoming famous.
  2. (intransitive) To feel pain.
    • At least he didn't suffer when he died in the car crash.
    Synonyms:
    agonize, anguish, thole
  3. (intransitive) To become worse.
    • If you keep partying like this, your school-work will suffer.
    • Our correspondent found that timekeeping had suffered following the substitution of Class 5 4-6-0s on these workings.1961 October, “Motive Power Miscellany: Scottish Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 638
  4. (transitive) To endure, undergo.
    • I've been suffering your insults for years.
    • We hope you never have to suffer the same pain.
  5. (archaic, transitive) To allow.
    • Thou shalt not suffer a witch to liue.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 22:18
    • But Iesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not to come vnto me: for of such is þe kingdome of heauen.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 19:14
    Synonyms:
    permit

suffer meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

suffer in Hindi

to suffer, to be ruined
पिसना pisnā

suffer in Tamil

அவதிப்படு, பாடாய்படுத்து, துன்புறு, துன்பப்படு

suffer in Urdu

چوٹ کھانا, دکھیا ہونا, جھیلنا, مصیبت اٹھانا, پانی پھر جانا, پڑنا

suffer in Bengali

to suffer
ভোগা bhōga
More languagesFewer languages
suffer in Telugu
తిను tinu, పొందు pondu, అనుభవించు anubhaviñcu, కుడుచు kuḍucu
suffer in Malayalam
കഷ്ടപ്പെടുക kaṣṭappeṭuka, വേദനിക്കുക vēdanikkuka, സഹിക്കുക sahikkuka
suffer in Kannada
ಪಡು, ತೊಳಲು, ನೋ, ನೋಯು
suffer in Punjabi
رلنا rulṇā
suffer in Gujarati
સહવું sahvũ
suffer in Odia
ଯନ୍ତ୍ରଣା ଭୋଗିବାକୁ
suffer in Sanskrit
वहति vahati
suffer in Sinhala
කනවා kanawā
suffer in Nepali
दुःख भोग्नु
suffer in Arabic
تَأَلَّمَ taʔallama, عَانَى ʕānā
suffer in Thai
ตรำ dtram
suffer in Vietnamese
chịu đựng, cảm thấy đau

Examples of suffer in a sentence

  • Equities have suffered two big bear markets since 2000 and are wobbling again.2013 July 6, “The rise of smart beta”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8843, archived from the original on 01 May 2024, page 68:
  • There are other grammatical changes, mostly syntactical in their nature, into which the limits of this work do not suffer us to enter.1879, Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury, History of the English Language, page 134:
  • "Employ" includes to suffer or permit to work.1938, The U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 203
  • […] it shall be unlawful for any person to cause, allow, permit or suffer any vehicle to be parked […] beyond the period of time established by the duration of the parking meter […]1978, Section 31-36 of the Code of Montgomery County, Maryland

All 40 example sentences with suffer

Synonyms of suffer

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of suffer

Forms of suffer

third-person singular presentsuffers
present participlesuffering
past participlesuffered
pastsuffered
second-person singular present (archaic)sufferest
second-person singular past (archaic)sufferedst
third-person singular present (archaic)suffereth

Past tense of suffer: suffered

Origin of suffer

From Middle English suffren, from Anglo-Norman suffrir, from Latin sufferre (“to offer, hold up, bear, suffer”), from sub- (“up, under”) + ferō (“to carry”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”). Displaced native Old English þrōwian.

Words formed from suffer

Phrases with suffer

Words that rhyme with suffer

Questions about suffer

What does suffer mean?
Suffer means to undergo hardship.
What is suffer in Hindi?
Suffer in Hindi is पिसना (pisnā). See Suffer meaning in Hindi.
How do you use suffer in a sentence?
Equities have suffered two big bear markets since 2000 and are wobbling again.
What part of speech is suffer?
Suffer is a verb.
How do you pronounce suffer?
Suffer is pronounced /ˈsʌfə/ (UK).
What is the past tense of suffer?
The past tense of suffer is suffered.

Words near suffer in the dictionary

  1. Sufetula
  2. suff'ring
  3. suff.
  4. suffect
  5. suffects
  6. suffer
  7. suffer by comparison
  8. suffer fools gladly
  9. suffer from
  10. suffer in silence
  11. suffer'd

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: suffer (page history and authors); पिसना (Hindi) (page history and authors); suffer (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); suffer (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ভোগা (Bengali) (page history and authors); అనుభవించు (Telugu) (page history and authors); suffer (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); رلنا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); સહવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); suffer (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); කනවා (Sinhala) (page history and authors); suffer (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-suffer.ogg.

Cite this entry: “suffer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/suffer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.