- present participle of suffer.
suffering
Americannoun
-
the pain, misery, or loss experienced by a person who suffers
-
the state or an instance of enduring pain, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of suffering
First recorded in 1350–1400; suffer + -ing 1 ( def. )
Explanation
Suffering is the kind of pain you feel when you shatter your ankle and it's what you'll see all around you if you find yourself in the middle of a tornado or an earthquake. When you're suffering, you're not happy — in fact, you're quite miserable. The Latin roots that give us suffering and related words paint a vivid picture of what suffering feels like. The word comes from sub-, meaning "below," and ferre, "bear." Suffering is something pressing you down that you have to submit to and bear. It's definitely the opposite of fun.
Vocabulary lists containing suffering
Because of Winn-Dixie
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"The Young American" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The House of Hades
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
There was disappointment for 2025 world indoor champion Amber Anning, who was forced to pull out of the women's 400m final after suffering an injury during her warm-up.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
"Not only are the carriers suffering, but also the industries that depend on the goods they transport," Wens said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
While Iran is suffering mounting economic pain, it is shifting into a survival economy designed to endure it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
A woman described suffering horrific flashbacks and claimed it had taken 40 minutes for a fire engine to respond to her emergency call.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
But I think I’m suffering from more than jet lag.
From "Amina's Song" by Hena Khan
Some of the melodies composed by incarcerated musicians have become enduring American tunes—as have many songs about the stories and sufferings of prisoners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Researchers have increasingly linked such sufferings to heavy social media use among adolescents.
From Barron's ● Mar. 25, 2026
The committee praised his policy of non-violence, which it called "all the more remarkable when it is considered in relation to the sufferings inflicted on the Tibetan people".
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2025
Coon: It’s meaningful that Mike set this season in Thailand, in a Buddhist country, because, of course, if you look at the tenets of Buddhism, one of the great sufferings is comparing mind.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2025
In many respects, the reality of mass incarceration is easier to avoid knowing than the injustices and sufferings associated with slavery or Jim Crow.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
