suicide

B1 Topic:Actions & Processes

US /ˈsuɪˌsaɪd/ UK /ˈs(j)uːɪˌsaɪd/ See IPA manual

Freq #1557

Meanings

1

noun
The act of intentionally killing oneself.

The charity offers support to people who are thinking about suicide.
2

noun
A particular case of a person killing themselves.

Police investigated the death as a possible suicide.
3

noun
An action that brings disaster on yourself or your group.

Raising prices now would be political suicide.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · the act of intentionally... self-destruction

More autohomicideself-bloodself-deletionself-killingself-murderself-slaughterself-slayingsillycidesuicism

Word family

Forms suicides

Derived forms antisuicidebullycidecybersuicidedesuicidedouble-suicideethnosuicidemedicidemurder-suicidemurdercidenonsuicideparasuicidepostsuicide

Related forms filicidefratricidehara-kiriherbicide infanticide insecticide kamikaze matricideneonaticideparricidepatricidepesticide

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

committed suicide
intentionally ended their own life

Verb + noun

Etymology

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…

Topics

Actions & Processes

External links

# suicide

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈsuɪˌsaɪd/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈs(j)uːɪˌsaɪd/
**Frequency rank:** 1557

## Meanings
1. The act of intentionally killing oneself.
2. A particular case of a person killing themselves.
3. An action that brings disaster on yourself or your group.

## Examples
- The charity offers support to people who are thinking about suicide.
- Police investigated the death as a possible suicide.
- Raising prices now would be political suicide.

## Synonyms
- autohomicide
- self-blood
- self-deletion
- self-killing
- self-murder
- self-slaughter
- self-slaying
- sillycide
- suicism

## Derived Forms
- antisuicide
- bullycide
- cybersuicide
- desuicide
- double-suicide
- ethnosuicide
- medicide
- murder-suicide
- murdercide
- nonsuicide
- parasuicide
- postsuicide

## Related Forms
- filicide
- fratricide
- hara-kiri
- herbicide
- infanticide
- insecticide
- kamikaze
- matricide
- neonaticide
- parricide
- patricide
- pesticide

## Etymology
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…

## AI Etymology
Suicide is 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).

## Topics
- Actions & Processes

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