self-murder

noun

"self-murder" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“self-murder” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Suicide.

Corpus desk

Index EN-self-murder · self-murder · English

self-murder · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for self-murder
PropertyValue
Headwordself-murder
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “self-murder” in English

self-murderranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

self-murder is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Suicide.".

self-murder has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From self- + murder, perhaps continuing Middle English *self-murther, from Old English selfmyrþere (“one who kills himself, a suicide”). Compare German Selbstmord, Dutch zelfmoord, Swedish självmord. The correct English form is self-murder, spelled S-E-L-F---M-U-R-D-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Suicide.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how self-murder appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. My mind being by these means grown as desperate as my fortune, there was scarce a wickedness which I did not meditate, in order for my relief. Self-murder itself became the subject of my serious deliberation; and I had certainly resolved on it, had not a more shameful, though perhaps less sinful, thought expelled it from my head.

Etymology

From self- + murder, perhaps continuing Middle English *self-murther, from Old English selfmyrþere (“one who kills himself, a suicide”). Compare German Selbstmord, Dutch zelfmoord, Swedish självmord.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "self-murder"?
"self-murder" is spelled S-E-L-F---M-U-R-D-E-R.
What does "self-murder" mean?
As a noun, "self-murder" means: Suicide.
What is the origin of the word "self-murder"?
From self- + murder, perhaps continuing Middle English *self-murther, from Old English selfmyrþere (“one who kills himself, a suicide”). Compare German Selbstmord, Dutch zelfmoord, Swedish självmord. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list