From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsuicidesu‧i‧cide /ˈsuːəsaɪd, ˈsjuː- $ ˈsuː-/ ●○○ noun [countable, uncountable] 1 KILLthe act of killing yourself More people commit suicide at Christmas than at any other time. My mother attempted suicide on many occasions. He apparently left a suicide note on his desk (=letter explaining his reasons for killing himself).2 → political/economic suicide3 → suicide attack/mission/bombing etc4 → suicide by copCOLLOCATIONSverbscommit suicide (=kill yourself)Most people who commit suicide have had depressive illnesses.attempt suicide (=try to kill yourself)She had attempted suicide twice.contemplate suicide (=think that you might try to kill yourself)I contemplated suicide on several occasions after my daughter died.suicide + NOUNa suicide attemptHe was admitted to a psychiatric facility after a suicide attempt.a suicide bid (=a suicide attempt – used in news reports)The singer was rushed to hospital after an apparent suicide bid.a suicide note (=a letter in which someone explains their reasons for killing themselves)He left a suicide note for his two teenage children saying ‘Please forgive me.’a suicide threat (=when someone says that they will kill themselves)Depression may sometimes lead to suicide threats.a suicide pact (=an agreement that two or more people make to kill themselves at the same time)She shot her husband and herself in a suicide pact.the suicide rate (=the number of people who kill themselves)The suicide rate among former soldiers is very high.adjectivesmass suicide (=when many people commit suicide together)He ordered his followers to commit mass suicide.assisted suicide (=when someone such as a doctor helps a very ill person commit suicide)Thirty-four other states have adopted similar laws banning assisted suicide.
Examples from the Corpus
suicide• Police are treating the man's death as suicide.• In the United States, 35 states explicitly make doctor-assisted suicide a crime, including New York.• He told me the only way he could get checked in to a hospital was by attempting suicide.• Barry threatened to commit suicide if she refused to marry him.• Rumours spread that you had committed suicide.• Stephen required hospital treatment after his suicide attempt.• This would particularly apply where the risk of suicide is judged to be high.• To have taken on the world in that state would have been political suicide.• Moore's suicide note was also read to the court.• There is grave concern about the number of teenage suicides recorded last year.commit suicide• But Grundberg committed suicide June 22,1994.• The Minister of Law and Order denied any police responsibility and suggested that many of those who died had committed suicide.• Elaine Blond observed that he had committed suicide by stages.• The Gamester also ended tragically when Beverly, a gambler, falsely accused of murder, committed suicide by taking poison.• Only by restoring his muscle spasm had he been able to conquer the impulse to commit suicide.• I have tried to commit suicide many times, but I couldn't do it.• The second time, like the first, no one could say for certain she had been trying to commit suicide.• After the cremains were found last June in a collapsed storage locker, Vieira committed suicide.Origin suicide (1600-1700) Latin sui “of oneself” + English -cide 