suicide

Syllables: su·i·cide/ˈs(j)uːɪˌsaɪd//ˈsuɪˌsaɪd/

suicide noun: the act of intentionally killing oneself.

Noun

suicide (countable and uncountable, plural suicides)

(uncountable) The act of intentionally killing oneself.
- As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.1838 January 27, Abraham Lincoln, The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions
- The cowardice of suicide was abhorrent to him.1904, Harold MacGrath, chapter 22, in The Man On The Box
(countable) A particular instance of a person intentionally killing oneself, or of multiple people doing so.
- There had been half a dozen mysterious suicides which had been investigated by Scotland Yard.1919, Edgar Wallace, chapter 14, in The Secret House
- In this way the Heaven's Gate community were not only escaping the threat of 'global destruction', they were hurling themselves directly into 'the lap of God', using their suicide as a way of 'bridging the chasm' between an earthly world which had no future and 'a thousand years of unmitigated...1999, Philip H. Melling, Fundamentalism in America: Millennialism, Identity and Militant Religion, Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 192
(countable) A person who has intentionally killed themself.
- "I remember one suicide," she said to Philip, "who threw himself into the Thames."1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 95, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC
- Poets have been ill-fated in Russia ever since the Revolution: Vladimir Mayakovsky and Sergei Esenin, among the two great poets of the Revolutionary era, were suicides; […]1980 December 21, James Atlas, “A Poetic Triumph”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Nov 2025
Synonyms:

an hero, autocide, self-killer, self-murderer, self-slayer, suicidee, suicider, suicidist
(figuratively) 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.
- political suicide
- […] I do not want the Congress or the country to commit fiscal suicide on the installment plan.1959 February 9, Everett Dirksen, Congressional Record, archived from the original on 16 Jan 2009, page 2100
(US, countable, slang) A beverage combining all available flavors at a soda fountain.
- You could sit at a corner and order your Suicide, and one of two twin brothers who worked there would hold an old-fashioned soda glass, a heavy tall V-shaped one with a round foot at the bottom, and go down the line with one shot of everything—cherry, lemon, Coke, and chocolate syrups—before adding...1994, Christopher Buckley, Cruising State: Growing Up in Southern California, University of Nevada Press, →ISBN, page 34
- Using Coca-Cola as a base, a suicide called for the addition of every other flavor available.2000, Mark Pendergrast, For God, Country and Coca-Cola, Basic Books, →ISBN, page 15
Synonyms:

graveyard, swamp water
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) 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.
- The coach makes us run suicides at the end of each basketball practice.
A children's game of throwing a ball against a wall and at other players, who are eliminated by being struck.
(attributive) Pertaining to a suicide bombing.
- suicide belt
- suicide vest

Verb

suicide (third-person singular simple present suicides, present participle suiciding, simple past and past participle suicided)

(intransitive) To intentionally kill oneself.
- "Her husband suicided three years ago. Just like a man!"1917, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 11, in Anne's House of Dreams
- Seems a lady poet suicided at Verringer's ranch in Sepulveda canyon one time.1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 136
Synonyms:

an hero, catch the bus, commit hara-kiri, commit seppuku, commit sudoku, end one's life, kill oneself, off oneself, rope, ropemaxx
(transitive) To kill (someone) and make their death appear to have been a suicide rather than a homicide (now especially as part of a conspiracy).
- Have bought The Shanghai Chopsticks. Proprietor at first refused to sell, but when I ordered the boiling oil he became more reasonable. Editor reports that circulation is not what it ought to be. […] Will publish proclaimation, "Any person found not in possession of The Shanghai Chopsticks (current...1898 October 29, Punch, or the London charivari, page 196
- Even if he did get charged, he would be suicided long before he could involve one of the city's most important politicians in the scam.2011, Tobias Jones, White Death, →ISBN, page 273
(ambitransitive, figuratively) To destroy or self-destruct.
- At the conclusion of each wind, the movement of the driver's control lever back to the neutral position, and consequently the movement of the Ward Leonard controller back to its neutral position, firstly opens the directional contacts which isolate the generator field from the Ward Leonard exciter...1957, The Institute of Mineral Industries, Proceedings - Issues 181-182, page 315
- The problem is that the degradation of our common space requires a complete social transformation, because it's a part of Galician society's general degradation, a society demographically declining — demographically suiciding, as it were — with inactive employers and intellectual elites comfortably...2006, Ugliness?: Destroying a Country, →ISBN

suicide meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

suicide in Hindi

instance of killing oneself: आत्महत्या ātmahatyā, आत्मघात ātmaghāt, आत्मवध ātmavadh, खुदकुशी khudkuśī, ख़ुद-कुशी xud-kuśī, स्वहंता svahantā
person who has killed himself/herself, is killing (is attempting/has attempted to kill) himself/herself: आत्मघाती ātmaghātī

suicide in Tamil

instance of killing oneself: தற்கொலை taṟkolai

suicide in Marathi

instance of killing oneself: आत्महत्या ātmahatyā

suicide in Urdu

instance of killing oneself: خُود کُشی xūd kuśī, خُودْکُشی xūdkuśī, اِنْتِحار intihār, اِنْتِہار intihār
person who has killed himself/herself, is killing (is attempting/has attempted to kill) himself/herself: خُود کُش xūd kuś, خُودْکُش xūdkuś

More languagesFewer languages

suicide in Bengali: আত্মহত্যা attohotta, খোদকুশী khōdkuśi, খোদকুশ khōdokuś
suicide in Telugu: ఆత్మహత్య ātmahatya
suicide in Malayalam: ആത്മഹത്യ ātmahatya
suicide in Kannada: ಆತ್ಮಹತ್ಯೆ ātmahatye
suicide in Punjabi: ਖੁਦਕੁਸ਼ੀ khudkuśī
suicide in Gujarati: આત્મહત્યા
suicide in Odia: ଆତ୍ମହତ୍ଯ଼ା, ଆତ୍ମହତ୍ଯ଼ାର
suicide in Assamese: আত্মহত্যা atmohoitta
suicide in Nepali: आत्महत्या ātmahatyā
suicide in Pashto: انتحار entehār
suicide in Tagalog: pagpapatiwakal, pagpapakamatay
suicide in Arabic: اِنْتِحَار intiḥār, مُنْتَحِر muntaḥir, مُنْتَحِرَة muntaḥira
suicide in Malay: bunuh diri
suicide in Indonesian: bunuh diri, pembunuh diri
suicide in Thai: การฆ่าตัวตาย gaan-kâa-dtuua-dtaai, อัตวินิบาตกรรม
suicide in Vietnamese: tự sát, tự tử
suicide in Myanmar: ကိုယ်ကိုသတ်ခြင်း kuiykuisathkrang:

Examples of suicide in a sentence

Bob also said the song had to be called Suicide Is Painless.2008 October 24, Johnny Mandel & al., "Interview", JazzWax
Other global taboos, such as sex and suicide, manifest themselves widely online, with websites offering suicide guides and Hot XXX Action seconds away at the click of a button. […]2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian:
In 2020-21, there were 247 suicides or suspected suicides on the national network - that's one every 35 hours.2023 November 15, Ian Prosser talks to Stefanie Foster, “A healthy person is a more productive person”, in RAIL, number 996, page 36:
Early in the film two boys are caught having sex […] and this exposure leads to suicide and much conversation.1984 August 18, Walta Borawski, “Another Country (review)”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 6, page 13:

Synonyms of suicide

23 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of suicide

Forms of suicide

Noun
plural	suicides
Verb
third-person singular present	suicides
present participle	suiciding
past participle	suicided
past	suicided

Origin of suicide

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.

Words formed from suicide

Phrases with suicide

56 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about suicide

What does suicide mean?: Suicide means the act of intentionally killing oneself.
What is suicide in Hindi?: Suicide in Hindi is आत्महत्या (ātmahatyā), आत्मघात (ātmaghāt), आत्मवध (ātmavadh). See Suicide meaning in Hindi.
How do you use suicide in a sentence?: Bob also said the song had to be called Suicide Is Painless.
What part of speech is suicide?: Suicide can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce suicide?: Suicide is pronounced /ˈs(j)uːɪˌsaɪd/ (UK).
What is the plural of suicide?: The plural of suicide is suicides.

Words near suicide in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: suicide (page history and authors); ਖੁਦਕੁਸ਼ੀ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); suicide (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); suicide (Odia, 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-suicide.ogg, En US Suicide.wav.

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