suffocation
Americannoun
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the act of killing by preventing air from getting to the blood through the lungs or gills; strangulation.
A crushing neck injury resulted in the child’s suffocation.
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difficulty breathing or inability to breathe, or any act that causes this.
One protestor endured temporary suffocation from tear gas.
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the act of making someone uncomfortable, or the fact of becoming uncomfortable, through lack of fresh air.
Every noon, the market was crowded; but on Sundays, it was crowded to the point of suffocation.
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the act or practice of thwarting someone’s self-expression, freedom, independence, etc..
Under the military regime there was so much suffocation of the media—they even burned down news offices.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of suffocation
First recorded in 1570–80; from Latin suffōcātiōn-, stem of suffōcātiō, “a choking, stifling”; see suffocate ( def. ), -ion ( def. )
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.
Stephane Delapre, a farmer in Beauvoir-sur-Mer, near the western coast, said half his chickens had died of suffocation on Monday.
From Barron's • Jun. 23, 2026
When hypergolic propellants burn, they release highly carcinogenic toxins and can cause suffocation and mutate a person’s DNA.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026
High concentrations of methane can cause "episodes of suffocation or headaches," Yuri Carvajal, president of the environmental department at the Medical College of Chile, told AFP.
From Barron's • May 13, 2026
He adds that audiences also recognised the mood of a country on the cusp of economic liberalisation, when a government job could represent both security and suffocation.
From BBC • Feb. 13, 2026
It took them more than four hours to free the four men who had been trapped in debris, including John Barry, who had come close to dying of suffocation before the rescuers arrived.
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
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.
