Definitions for suffering
ˈsʌf ər ɪŋ, ˈsʌf rɪŋsuf·fer·ing

Princeton's WordNet(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. agony, suffering, excruciation(noun)

   a state of acute pain

2. suffering, woe(noun)

   misery resulting from affliction

3. distress, hurt, suffering(noun)

   psychological suffering

   "the death of his wife caused him great distress"

4. suffering, hurt(adj)

   feelings of mental or physical pain

5. suffering(adj)

   troubled by pain or loss

   "suffering refugees"

6. miserable, suffering, wretched(adj)

   very unhappy; full of misery

   "he felt depressed and miserable"; "a message of hope for suffering humanity"; "wretched prisoners huddled in stinking cages"

Wiktionary(3.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. suffering(Noun)

   The condition of someone who suffers; a state of pain or distress.

2. suffering(Adjective)

   Experiencing pain.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Suffering

   of Suffer

2. Suffering(noun)

   the bearing of pain, inconvenience, or loss; pain endured; distress, loss, or injury incurred; as, sufferings by pain or sorrow; sufferings by want or by wrongs

3. Suffering(adj)

   being in pain or grief; having loss, injury, distress, etc

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Suffering

   Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, is an experience of unpleasantness and aversion associated with the perception of harm or threat of harm in an individual. Suffering is the basic element that makes up the negative valence of affective phenomena. Suffering may be qualified as physical or mental. It may come in all degrees of intensity, from mild to intolerable. Factors of duration and frequency of occurrence usually compound that of intensity. Attitudes toward suffering may vary widely, in the sufferer or other people, according to how much it is regarded as avoidable or unavoidable, useful or useless, deserved or undeserved. Suffering occurs in the lives of sentient beings in numerous manners, and often dramatically. As a result, many fields of human activity are concerned, from their own points of view, with some aspects of suffering. These aspects may include the nature of suffering, its processes, its origin and causes, its meaning and significance, its related personal, social, and cultural behaviors, its remedies, management, and uses.

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'suffering' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #3660

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'suffering' in Written Corpus Frequency: #4126

3. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'suffering' in Nouns Frequency: #2392

How to pronounce suffering?

1. Alex

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

How to say suffering in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of suffering in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of suffering in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of suffering in a Sentence

1. Debasish Mridha, M.D.:

   Life has existential suffering; we become happy by caring.

2. Kaela Bamberger:

   We are in the face of a mass extinction event, science tells us we are, that the implications of climate change are extremely wide-ranging and would cause mass suffering on a huge scale. The momentary inconvenience experienced by commuters has to be seen alongside the situation that were in.

3. Stephen Colbert about grief:

   It's a gift to exist and with existence comes suffering, there's no escaping that...

4. Jim Bell:

   This is becoming very real, American businesses are suffering, the trouble with tariffs, is they're always bad, they always increase the costs of almost everything for consumers and they destroy more jobs than they create.

5. Amishi Jha:

   Developing compassion, sets a foundation for the stability of the mind, and developing intrinsic compassion, a concern for the suffering of others and for oneself, that can be very powerful ... for all involved.

Images & Illustrations of suffering

Popularity rank by frequency of use