Meaning & use
suffer
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Meanings
verbintransitive
To feel physical or emotional pain or hardship.
Grammar: No direct object: she suffers in silence.
Patterns
- suffer in silence
- suffer from something
Many families suffered during the long winter.
He suffers terribly when the weather turns cold.
No animal should suffer needlessly.
verbintransitive
To have an illness or problem that affects you regularly.
Grammar: Followed by from: suffer from asthma, not 'suffer asthma'.
Patterns
- suffer from something
She suffers from migraines.
Many towns suffer from a shortage of doctors.
The company suffers from poor management.
verbtransitive
To go through something unpleasant, such as a loss or injury.
Grammar: Takes an object: suffer a defeat.
Patterns
- suffer something
The team suffered a heavy defeat on Saturday.
He suffered a broken arm in the fall.
The region suffered major flooding last spring.
verbintransitive
To become worse in quality because of a damaging influence.
Grammar: Often with a subject like work or health: his grades suffered.
Patterns
- something suffers
Her grades suffered after she took the second job.
Sales suffer when the shop is poorly staffed.
Friendships can suffer if people stop calling.
Word forms
| third person singular | suffers |
|---|---|
| past tense | suffered |
| past participle | suffered |
| -ing form | suffering |
Common combinations
- suffer from
- He suffers from a rare allergy.
- suffer in silence
- Nobody should suffer in silence.
- suffer a loss
- The club suffered a painful loss at home.
- suffer consequences
- Those who ignore the rules will suffer the consequences.
- suffer terribly
- The patient suffered terribly before the surgery.
Synonyms and how they differ
- endure
- Endure stresses lasting through something hard, while suffer stresses feeling its pain.
- undergo
- Undergo is neutral and fits treatments or changes, with no sense of pain.
- bear
- Bear means to put up with something painful without implying you are harmed.
- ache
- Ache is more specific and describes a dull physical or emotional pain.
Opposites
Word family
- suffering noun
- the experience of pain or hardship
- sufferer noun
- a person who has an illness or hardship
- sufferance noun
- tolerance that is only grudgingly given, as in on sufferance
- insufferable adjective
- too annoying to bear
Commonly confused: suffer or suffer vs. suffer from?
suffer vs suffer vs. suffer from
Use suffer from for an ongoing illness or problem; suffer alone suits a single event or general pain.
Practice
My brother ___ asthma since childhood.
Choose one answer.
Suffer takes from before an illness; the other prepositions are not used with this meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “suffer”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.