Meaning & use
stifling
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
So hot or airless that it is hard to breathe comfortably.
Grammar: Describes heat, rooms or air: a stifling room.
Patterns
- stifling heat
- a stifling room
The stifling heat made everyone sleepy.
The attic was stifling in August.
We left the stifling bus at the next stop.
adjectivecomparablefigurative
Restricting freedom or growth so much that you feel trapped.
Grammar: Used figuratively for rules, atmosphere or control.
Patterns
- a stifling atmosphere
She left the job because of the stifling bureaucracy.
The strict rules felt stifling to the young artist.
He found small-town life stifling.
Common combinations
- stifling heat
- The stifling heat settled over the city.
- stifling atmosphere
- The meeting had a stifling atmosphere.
- stifling humidity
- The stifling humidity made walking difficult.
- stifling rules
- Stifling rules killed his creativity.
- feel stifling
- The crowded room began to feel stifling.
Synonyms and how they differ
- suffocating
- Suffocating is stronger and suggests actual difficulty breathing.
- oppressive
- Oppressive fits weather and power, with a heavier sense of burden than stifling.
- stuffy
- Stuffy means lacking fresh air but is milder and sounds more casual.
- restrictive
- Restrictive only covers the figurative idea of limits, not heat or air.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: stifling or stuffy?
stifling vs stuffy
Stuffy can also describe a person who is formal and old-fashioned, which stifling cannot.
Practice
Which sentence uses stifling in a figurative sense?
Choose one answer.
Rules that limit creativity use stifling figuratively. The others describe physical heat.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “stifling”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.