suffocate
/ˈsʌfəkeɪt/verb
suffocate is spelled S-U-F-F-O-C-A-T-E: 9 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,504th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, suffocate means “To suffer, or cause someone to suffer, from severely reduced oxygen intake to the body” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in suffocate?
| Letters | 9: S-U-F-F-O-C-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 34,504th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is suffocate?
Suffocate appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,504th 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 suffocate?
- /ˈsʌfəkeɪt/
As an adjective (“Suffocated, choked”): /ˈsʌfəkeɪt/, /ˈsʌfəkət/.
Suffocate has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-suffocate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of suffocate
- suffocates present, singular, he/she/it
- suffocating participle, present
- suffocated participle, past
- more suffocate comparative
- most suffocate superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does suffocate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To suffer, or cause someone to suffer, from severely reduced oxygen intake to the body.
Open the hatch, he is suffocating in the airlock!
- 2
To die due to, or kill someone by means of, insufficient oxygen supply to the body.
He suffocated his wife by holding a pillow over her head.
- 3
To overwhelm, or be overwhelmed (by a person or issue), as though with oxygen deprivation.
I'm suffocating under this huge workload.
- 4
To destroy; to extinguish.
to suffocate fire
adjective
- 1
obsoleteSuffocated, choked.
- 2
obsoleteSmothered, overwhelmed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Suffocate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | suffoquer , étouffer |
| German | ersticken , würgen |
| Portuguese | sufocar |
| Spanish | sofocarse , sofocar |
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 suffocate come from?
The adjective is first attested in the 1420s, the verb in 1526; from Middle English suffocat(e) (“deprived of air, suffocated”), borrowed from Latin suffōcātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin suffōcō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from sub- (“under, up to”) + fōx (“throat”, oblique stem in fōc-). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).