suicide

[ soo-uh-sahyd ]

/ ˈsu əˌsaɪd /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR suicide ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

the intentional taking of one's own life.

destruction of one's own interests or prospects: Buying that house was financial suicide.

a person who intentionally takes his or her own life.

verb (used without object), su·i·cid·ed, su·i·cid·ing.

to commit suicide.

verb (used with object), su·i·cid·ed, su·i·cid·ing.

to kill (oneself).

Nearby words

Origin of suicide

1645–55; < New Latin suīcīdium, -cīda, equivalent to Latin suī of oneself, genitive singular of reflexive pronunciation + -cīdium, -cīda -cide

Related formsan·ti·su·i·cide, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for suicide

The Samaritan guidelines are written around the assumption that suicide is a purely irrational act, an act spurred by illness.
Cover-Ups and Concern Trolls: Actually, It's About Ethics in Suicide Journalism|Arthur Chu|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The sad fact is that more than 41 percent of trans people admit making at least one suicide attempt in their lifetime.
Dear Leelah, We Will Fight On For You: A Letter to a Dead Trans Teen|Parker Molloy|January 1, 2015|DAILY BEAST
One is reported to have blown himself up, along with many victims, but detonating a suicide vest.
Taliban: We Slaughtered 100+ Kids Because Their Parents Helped America|Sami Yousafzai|December 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
What is the suicide rate of Christian teens relative to transgender ones?
Do LGBTs Owe Christians an Olive Branch? Try The Other Way Around|Jay Michaelson|December 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Not long after, a 10-year-old girl wearing a suicide belt was arrested.
The New Face of Boko Haram’s Terror: Teen Girls|Nina Strochlic|December 13, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Cebes asks why suicide is thought not to be right, if death is to be accounted a good?
Phaedo|Plato
I hardly think there's anybody desperate enough to do that kind of a trick, for it would be a case of suicide.
Frank Merriwell's Nobility|Burt L. Standish (AKA Gilbert Patten)
Even though it looked like suicide, attacking the tower brought blessed relief.
Planet of the Damned|Harry Harrison
But I felt vividly that I was present as a spectator of my own suicide, and thought myself a feeble kind of fool.
Adventures on the Roof of the World|Mrs. Aubrey Le Blond
"Coz you're the Deer and that'd be suicide," was Sam's objection.
Two Little Savages|Ernest Thompson Seton

British Dictionary definitions for suicide

suicide

/ (ˈsuːɪˌsaɪd, ˈsjuː-) /

noun

the act or an instance of killing oneself intentionally

the self-inflicted ruin of one's own prospects or interestsa merger would be financial suicide

a person who kills himself intentionally

(modifier) reckless; extremely dangerousa suicide mission

(modifier) (of an action) undertaken or (of a person) undertaking an action in the knowledge that it will result in the death of the person performing it in order that maximum damage may be inflicted on an enemya suicide attack; suicide bomber

Word Origin for suicide

C17: from New Latin suīcīdium, from Latin suī of oneself + -cīdium, from caedere to kill

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for suicide

suicide

"deliberate killing of oneself," 1650s, from Modern Latin suicidium "suicide," from Latin sui "of oneself" (genitive of se "self"), from PIE *s(u)w-o- "one's own," from root *s(w)e- (see idiom) + -cidium "a killing" (see -cide). Probably an English coinage; much maligned by Latin purists because it "may as well seem to participate of sus, a sow, as of the pronoun sui" [Phillips]. The meaning "person who kills himself deliberately" is from 1728. In Anglo-Latin, the term for "one who commits suicide" was felo-de-se, literally "one guilty concerning himself."

November, the suicide season. [Samuel Foote, "The Bankrupt," 1773]

In England, suicides were legally criminal if sane, but not if judged to have been mentally deranged. The criminal ones were given degrading burial in roadways until 1823. Suicide blonde first attested 1942. Baseball suicide squeeze is attested from 1955.

Medicine definitions for suicide

suicide

[ sōō′ĭ-sīd′ ]

n.

The act or an instance of intentionally killing oneself.

One who commits suicide.

suicide

noun

verb (used without object), su·i·cid·ed, su·i·cid·ing.

verb (used with object), su·i·cid·ed, su·i·cid·ing.

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Origin of suicide

Examples from the Web for suicide

suicide

noun

Word Origin for suicide

suicide

suicide

n.