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suffocation

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,375 of 15,258neutral

Suffocation is death or distress from being unable to breathe. Death by suffocation, a feeling of suffocation, risk of suffocation.

Plastic bags and cot bedding carry warnings about it because small children cannot free themselves. The feeling of suffocation in panic is real but not dangerous, and it comes from breathing too fast rather than too little.

Definitions of suffocation

  1. 1nounsuffocationDeath or distress from being unable to breathe.B2+

    “Firefighters said the family died of suffocation from the smoke, not from the flames.”

suffocation is a danger.

Where it comes from

Latin suffocatio comes from suffocare, to choke — sub, under, plus fauces, the throat.

  1. Latin

    suffocatio

  2. Middle French

    suffocation

  3. Middle English

    suffocation

  4. English, today

    suffocation

Middle English suffocation, suffocacioun, from Middle French suffocation, from Latin suffocatio.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

suffocation in the wild

  • Despite these efforts, another child died due to suffocation.

    Burger King Pokémon container recall

  • The parents of the initial suffocation victim later sued Burger King for the incident, with Burger King paying out a monetary settlement to the family.

    Burger King Pokémon container recall

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.