Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The act or an instance of intentionally killing oneself.
- n. The destruction or ruin of one's own interests: It is professional suicide to involve oneself in illegal practices.
- n. One who commits suicide.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who commits suicide; at common law, one who, being of the years of discretion and of sound mind, destroys himself.
- n. The act of designedly destroying one's own life. To constitute suicide at common law, the person must be of years of discretion and of sound mind. The word is by some writers used to include the act of one who, in maliciously attempting to kill another, occasions his own death, as where a man shoots at another and the gun bursts and kills himself.
H. Stephen. - n. Figuratively, destruction of one's own interests or aims.
- To be guilty of suicide.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable Intentional killing of oneself, as a kind of action or social phenomenon.
- n. countable A particular instance of a person intentionally killing himself or herself, or of multiple people doing so.
- n. countable A person who has intentionally killed him/herself.
- n. figuratively An action which could have the literal or figurative death of a person or organization as its consequence, although death is not the aim of the action.
- n. countable A beverage combining all available flavors at a soda fountain.
- n. 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.
- n. 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.
- v. intransitive To kill oneself intentionally.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of taking one's own life voluntary and intentionally; self-murder; specifically (Law), the felonious killing of one's self; the deliberate and intentional destruction of one's own life by a person of years of discretion and of sound mind.
- n. One guilty of self-murder; a felo-de-se.
- n. Ruin of one's own interests.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a person who kills himself intentionally
- n. the act of killing yourself
Etymologies
- 1651, New Latin coinage (probably originating in English) suīcīda, suīcīdium, from Latin suī (from suus ("one’s own")) + Latin -cīda ("one who kills"). Compare self-slaughter, self-blood. (Wiktionary)
- Latin suī, of oneself; see s(w)e- in Indo-European roots + -cide. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Dr. GOULD: If the first suicide is a public suicide� TRUDEAU: That is if the first suicide gets media attention.”
“The disease is not mortal -- it is now in a course of cure; but Carolina's remedy is death -- it is suicide; for the _dissolution of the Union is political suicide_.”
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3 No 2, February 1863 Devoted To Literature And National Policy
“Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.”
“Corey says: what drives human beings to take their own lives, whether it be through suicide bombing or just plain suicide, is desperation, fueled by a belief that nothing less could possibly make a difference†¦ doctor my eyes …”
“Rear Admiral Harry Harris, Commander, Joint Task Force Guantanamo what drives human beings to take their own lives, whether it be through suicide bombing or just plain suicide, is desperation, fueled by a belief that nothing less could possibly make a difference …”
“CLAYTON: I ain't never used the term suicide, and I'm not going to never use the term suicide, that that man killed -- was killing us.”
“But the term suicide bombing itself can be misleading.”
“Dignity in Dying wants to make a clear separation from the term suicide, which does carry with it, among other things, suicide is a colossal act of aggression against the nearest and dearest.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“They never used the term suicide, but implied his death was accidental with Michael desperate to get some rest.”
“Jensen said the word suicide was replaced with "seriously trying to harm or kill yourself, or making plans to do so," because parents didn't necessarily identify the term with children.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘suicide’.
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Psychology
stockholm syndrome, stereotype, ergonomics, human-computer in..., prejudice, neo-luddism, stress, trauma, psychopathology, psychotic, neurosis, depression and 180 more...
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Conspiracies
...And all that heavy metal.
kurt cobain, courtney love, tom grant, exodus rehab clinic, california, seattle, record industry e..., military industri..., mic, yugoslavia, heroin, credit cards and 202 more...
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Figuratively
Words with definitions containing "figuratively."
spore, plunge, fulminate, rasp, hinge, niche, breathe, approach, hammer, rain, butcher, dazzle and 132 more...
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things (bad)
things you may fall victim to.
goto things (good)
( randomness, events, situations, nouns )treachery, quagmire, overdose, bombing, suicide, homicide, spam, prison, acute renal failure, bad programming, being pants'd, bleeding out and 37 more...
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-cide
patricide, suicide, matricide, fratricide, regicide, insecticide, herbicide, fungicide, barbicide, ethnocide, foeticide, genocide and 4 more...
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Precise words to describe murder
Suicide, infanticide, fraticide, you name it.
homocide, filicide, infanticide, parricide, matricide, patricide, suicide, spermicide, fratricide, regicide, uxoricide, vatricide and 10 more...
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-cide, -cidal
of killing or a killer
regicide, homicide, suicide, suicidal, spermicide, spermicidal, matricide, patricide, infanticide, sororicide, fratricide, parricidious and 2 more...
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-cide words
aborticide to weedicide
algaecide, acaricide, aborticide, algicide, antipesticide, antisuicide, aphicide, bacillicide, bactericide, biocide, biopesticide, bullycide and 62 more...
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Ophelia
Words to describe John Everett Millais' Ophelia
biology, biosphere, community, habitat, biotic, vivacious, nature, natural, detail, ecology ecosystem, dense, elaborate and 33 more...
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No Dearth of Deadly Designations
catafalque, cenotaph, necropolis, sepulcher, sarcophagus, mausoleum, reliquary, ossuary, necrosis, cadaver, cadaverous, pyre and 103 more...
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chefjulianin's Words
high, ice, recipe, bear, bare, lady, food, identity, sudden, spooky, away, cook and 142 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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savage215's Words
pipe, yankee, knickerbocker, tennis, plasma, magma, volcano, car, truck, television, tv, word and 445 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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We Didn't Start the Fire
No we didn't light it but we tried to fight it...
Please do comment if you know all the lyrics off by heart. I would love to know.Rock and Roller c..., China's under mar..., hypodermics on th..., Bernie Goetz, crack, AIDS, homeless vets, foreign debts, suicide, heavy metal, Sally Ride, Wheel of Fortune and 106 more...
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boychoir's Words
tantamount, nom de guerre, absurd, dolt, transmute, dichotomy, dandy, schadenfreude, ennui, binary, analog, obfuscate and 93 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for suicide.

nuxiy We`ll never know. Mar 19, 2009
arcadia Yeah, leave 'em laughin', right? I guess you could say he did Carlin proud. Perhaps Life is Worth Losing was the kid's inspiration... Mar 19, 2009
nuxiy Horrible as it may be, atleast the guy had a good sense of humour. Mar 19, 2009
arcadia True (morbid) story: My husband's classmate senior year committed suicide by hanging himself. His note simply read "Got rope?"
Mar 19, 2009
nuxiy "Hey, guys! Guess what? Keep on reading! How are you? I hope you are fine. I am not fine - as you can no doubt tell from me hanging here from the ceiling fixture. You are the ones who drove me to this. I was doing just fine until you fuckers came along. I hope you're happy now that I'm goddamn dead. Signed, The Corpse in This Room. P.S: Fuck you people!"
- George Carlin in Life is worth losing, explaining how a suicide note should be. Mar 19, 2009
bilby "The Army recorded it highest ever number of suicides last year, with 115 soldiers killing themselves, Reuters reports. The rate is staying high this year, with 38 soldier suicides so far. The military said the statistics showed no direct link between the increase in suicides and repeated deployments to combat zones—but admitted the stresses of war were taking their toll."
- 'Soldier Suicides Set Record', newser.com, 30 May 2008. Sep 30, 2008
sakhalinskii Not insightful, not necessary either. Jul 31, 2008
darqueau I'm no romanticizer of suicide... however, The Sorrows of Young Werther is one of my all-time favorite books. I can no longer think or hear of suicide without young beloved Werther coming to mind. Jul 31, 2008
chained_bear Not funny. Not clever either. Jul 31, 2008
sakhalinskii A logical conclusion to an illogical life. Jul 31, 2008
chained_bear Yeah. I guess if you're that afraid of dying, then dying might cure that fear. And everything else you'll ever experience. Mar 3, 2008
skipvia That reminds me of an HP Lovecraft story in which the protagonist, having acquired the ability to peer into the future, sees himself lying helplessly in a vegetative state. To prevent this from happening, he decides to take his life by shooting himself in the head. The attempt is not successful, though--his wounds put him into a vegetative state... Mar 3, 2008
gangerh From a suicide note: 'Action cures fear, they taught me. To overcome your fear do the thing that you are afraid of. I was afraid of dying'. Mar 2, 2008
oroboros “Razors pain you; rivers are damp; acids stain you; and drugs cause cramp. Guns aren't lawful; nooses give; gas smells awful; you might as well live.�?
--Dorothy Parker Jul 2, 2007