suicide

CEFRB2

/ˈs(j)uːɪˌsaɪd/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The act of intentionally ending one's own life.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

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

Examples

  • The prominent poet attempted to commit suicide in his study.

  • That man can't have committed suicide.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • [ˈsʉːəˌsɑe̯d]
  • /ˈsuɪˌsaɪd/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A person who has intentionally killed themself.

  2. The act of intentionally killing oneself.

  3. 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.

More examples

In context

  • The coach makes us run suicides at the end of each basketball practice.

  • political suicide

  • suicide belt

Synonyms

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Nearby

Origin

noun

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.