asphyxia
/æzˈfɪksiə/noun
asphyxia is spelled A-S-P-H-Y-X-I-A: 8 letters. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 58,714th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, asphyxia means “Loss of consciousness due to the interruption of breathing and consequent anoxia” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of asphyxia is asphyxias.
How many letters and syllables are in asphyxia?
| Letters | 8: A-S-P-H-Y-X-I-A |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 58,714th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is asphyxia?
Asphyxia appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 58,714th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce asphyxia?
- /æzˈfɪksiə/
- /as-/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-asphyxia.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of asphyxia
- asphyxias plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does asphyxia mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Loss of consciousness due to the interruption of breathing and consequent anoxia.
Asphyxia may result from choking, drowning, electric shock, or injury.
- 2
Loss of consciousness due to the body's inability to deliver oxygen to its tissues, either by the breathing of air lacking oxygen or by the inability of the blood to carry oxygen.
- 3
obsoleteA condition in which an extreme decrease in the concentration of oxygen in the body leads to loss of consciousness or death. Replaced in the mid-20th century by the more specific terms anoxia, hypoxia, hypoxemia and hypercapnia.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Asphyxia in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense condition with extreme decrease of oxygen and increase of carbon dioxide:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does asphyxia come from?
Learned borrowing from New Latin asphyxia, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀσφυξία (asphuxía, “stopping of the pulse”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).