Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe act of intentionally killing oneself.
nounA particular instance of a person intentionally killing oneself, or of multiple people doing so.
Sentence Examples
The prominent poet attempted to commit suicide in his study.
That man can't have committed suicide.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The police investigated the case of ____ and found no evidence of foul play.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The novel tells a tragic story of a young man who committed ____ after losing everything he loved today.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"I realize and I can see / That suicide is painless / It brings on many changes / And I can take or leave it if I please"
— 1970, “Suicide Is Painless”, Mike Altman (lyrics), Johnny Mandel (music):
"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:
"There had been half a dozen mysterious suicides which had been investigated by Scotland Yard."
— 1919, Edgar Wallace, chapter 14, in The Secret House: