suffuse
Americanverb (used with object)
-
suffuses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
suffused,
past participle, past
-
suffusing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
suffusesimple
-
suffusessimple
-
have suffusedperfect
-
has suffusedperfect
-
am suffusingprogressive
-
are suffusingprogressive
-
is suffusingprogressive
-
have been suffusingperfect progressive
-
has been suffusingperfect progressive
Past
-
suffusedsimple
-
had suffusedperfect
-
was suffusingprogressive
-
were suffusingprogressive
-
had been suffusingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of suffuse
First recorded in 1580–90, suffuse is from the Latin word suffūsus (past participle of suffundere ). See suf-, fuse 2
Explanation
The verb suffuse means to spread and fill a space, like the way the smell of wildflowers might suffuse a meadow. Suffuse is a synonym for steep. Like tea whose flavor grows stronger the more it steeps, when you suffuse something it spreads throughout until an area is full, or even overly full. Another synonym, infuse, looks a lot like suffuse. Both words come from the Latin word fundere, which means "to pour."
Vocabulary lists containing suffuse
The Alchemist
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A Thousand Splendid Suns
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Song of Solomon
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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:
Online tools suffuse the modern classroom, requiring students to navigate Canvas and download readings from the school library.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026
Nonsurgical options like dermal fillers or fat grafting can suffuse depressions to create a more centered appearance.
From Slate ● Feb. 22, 2026
With each breath, we suffuse our bodies with oxygen-rich air that keeps our organs and tissues healthy and working properly -- and without oxygen, we can survive mere minutes.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 6, 2024
That belief would later suffuse the work of the advertising design studio, All Australian Graffiti, founded by Aslanis and Cozzolino.
From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2023
They would form a ring around him, holding each other by the hand, trying to suffuse him with their healing fluids, but that too failed to endow Nicolas with mental powers.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
Ms. Brown’s Erica tries to mediate the tension that suffuses the house, while Mr. Braithwaite’s Leni has a cool humor that also helps ease the fraught dynamic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
The hard-driving presence of bandleader and narrator Jeb Brown suffuses the production with Americana authenticity, vibrantly maintained by music director Rebekah Bruce and music supervisor Dean Sharenow.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 27, 2025
The potent melancholy that suffuses the song, and much of the album, tells you about how well that went.
From New York Times ● Mar. 8, 2024
As the chicken roasts, the paste blends with the rendered fat from the skin and suffuses the meat with rich, complex flavors.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 3, 2023
Your Atman will fly from the web of human desire and join the collective consciousness—the infinite soul that suffuses the universe, at once everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
It flew in the face of the mantra of the “quiet professional” that suffused military culture, a kind of sober maturity that was critical to judicious use of deadly force.
From Slate ● Apr. 13, 2026
But with “All That’s Left of You,” she draws from family stories and her own childhood memories of visiting Palestine to make a film suffused with sadness and tension.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 9, 2026
The pommel-horse shape is accented with pencil-thin metallic piping and soft, suffused light pools in the hollows.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
Consider all that has happened in the past six months to erase the bearish sentiment that suffused our spring survey—and Wall Street.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2025
In the confines of the tent, the scent suffused the air, sharp and tangy.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
Shalit became a popular fixture in American households from the 1970s through to his retirement in 2010, stylistically standing out with his thick-framed spectacles, polkadot bowties and frizzed hair, suffusing his segments with pun-filled wordplay.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
As you chew, the cardamom bits send out little bolts of flavor, suffusing the cake with a lovely scent of spice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
And that intense, buttery scent suffusing the journalist Emma Specter’s apartment in Austin, Texas?
From New York Times ● Feb. 13, 2023
From them, Lovato learned to throw her body into her otherwise supple voice, suffusing every peak and valley of a song with a magnitude fitting for rock.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2022
The light suffusing the Court was so plentiful and intense, it hurt their eyes.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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.
