suicide
su·i·cide/ˈsuɪˌsaɪd/noun, verb
suicide is spelled S-U-I-C-I-D-E, 3 syllables: su·i·cide. The wrong spelling people search most is sucide: about 290 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 19 of all searches for the word. Suicide is a noun meaning “The act of intentionally killing oneself”. The plural of suicide is suicides.
How many letters and syllables are in suicide?
| Letters | 7: S-U-I-C-I-D-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: su·i·cide |
| In writing | 42 times per million words; the 2,392nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, sucide, about 290 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell suicide?
Suicide is spelled S-U-I-C-I-D-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 19 of the searches for suicide in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is suicide?
Suicide appears 42 times per million words in written English, the 2,392nd 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 suicide?
- UK /ˈs(j)uːɪˌsaɪd/
- US /ˈsuɪˌsaɪd/
- Australia /ˈsʉːɪˌsɑed/
Suicide has 3 syllables, split su·i·cide in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-suicide.ogg, En_US_Suicide.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of suicide
- suicides plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- suiciding participle, present
- suicided participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does suicide mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of intentionally killing oneself.
Bob also said the song had to be called Suicide Is Painless. "Since [Capt.] Painless commits suicide with a pill, that would be a good title," he said. Then he said, "It's got to be the stupidest song ever written." ... So Michael Altman, a
- 2
A particular instance of a person intentionally killing oneself, or of multiple people doing so.
- 3
A person who has intentionally killed themself.
- 4
An action that could cause the literal or figurative death of a person or organization, although death may not be the aim of the action.
political suicide
- 5
USslangA beverage combining all available flavors at a soda fountain.
- 6
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
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.
The coach makes us run suicides at the end of each basketball practice.
- 8
A children's game of throwing a ball against a wall and at other players, who are eliminated by being struck.
verb
- 1
To intentionally kill oneself.
- 2
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 destroy or self-destruct.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate suicide?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of suicide: sui.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Suicide in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | suicide , suicidé, suicidée, suicidant, suicidante |
| German | Suizid, Freitod, Selbstmord , Selbstmörder, Selbstmörderin, Suizidant |
| Portuguese | suicídio , suicida |
| Spanish | suicidio, autolisis , suicida |
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 suicide come from?
First attested in Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (1643) in noun 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).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).