suicide

Meaning

Noun

1. (uncountable) The act of intentionally killing oneself.
2. (countable) A particular instance of a person intentionally killing oneself, or of multiple people doing so.
3. (countable) A person who has intentionally killed themself.
4. (countable, figuratively, uncountable) An action that could cause the literal or figurative death of a person or organization, although death is not the aim of the action.
5. (US, countable, slang) A beverage combining all available flavors at a soda fountain.
6. (countable, uncountable) A diabolo trick where one of the sticks is released and allowed to rotate 360° round the diabolo until it is caught by the hand that released it.
7. (countable) A run comprising a series of sprints of increasing lengths, each followed immediately by a return to the start, with no pause between one sprint and the next.
8. (countable, uncountable) A children's game of throwing a ball against a wall and at other players, who are eliminated by being struck.
9. (attributive, countable, uncountable) Pertaining to a suicide bombing.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To intentionally kill oneself.
2. (transitive) To kill (someone) and make their death appear to have been a suicide rather than a homicide (now especially as part of a conspiracy).
3. To self-destruct.

Synonyms

self-destruction

felo-de-se

self-murder

self-annihilation

self-murderer

self-slaughter

take one’s own life

sati

kill oneself

suttee

felo de se

self-violence

committing suicide

self-killing

Dutch act

sattee

self-killer

commit suicide

top oneself

hang

harakiri

hara-kiri

masochism

resignation

self-abuse

self-destroyer

self-determination

Translations

suicide

suicidio

suicidio

Selbstmord

Suizid

αυτοκτονία

suicídio

zelfmoord

Freitod

Selbstmörderin

Selbstmörder

انتحار

suicida

suïcidi

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈs(j)uːɪˌsaɪd/

Etymology

First attested in Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (1643) in 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). Sense 3 is perhaps by analogy with words like homicide, patricide (see -cide), or, although unlikely, from Medieval Latin suīcīda; see the Etymology section at suīcīdium.