The Latin word suffendere, ancestor to suffuse by way of Latin suffūsus, has various meanings that shed light on our modern word, among them "to pour on or in (as an addition)" and "to fill with a liquid, color, or light that wells up from below." It’s no surprise, then, that suffuse refers to the action of fluid or light spreading over or through something, as when light fills a dark room when you crack open a door. Suffundere is a blend of the prefix sub- ("under" or "beneath") and the verb fundere ("to pour" or "to send forth"). Other English verbs related to fundere continue the theme of pouring or spreading: diffuse ("to pour out and spread freely"), effuse ("to pour or flow out"), transfuse ("to cause to pass from one to another"), and the verb fuse itself when it's used to mean "to meld or join."
infuse implies a pouring in of something that gives new life or significance.
new members infused enthusiasm into the club
suffuse implies a spreading through of something that gives an unusual color or quality.
a room suffused with light
imbue implies the introduction of a quality that fills and permeates the whole being.
imbue students with intellectual curiosity
ingrain, used only in the passive or past participle, suggests the deep implanting of a quality or trait.
clung to ingrained habits
inoculate implies an imbuing or implanting with a germinal idea and often suggests stealth or subtlety.
an electorate inoculated with dangerous ideas
leaven implies introducing something that enlivens, tempers, or markedly alters the total quality.
a serious play leavened with comic moments
Examples of suffuse in a Sentence
Morning light suffused the room.
she was suffused with an overwhelming feeling of liberation as her horse broke into a gallop
Recent Examples on the WebLast Saturday, the smell of barbecue suffusing the air drew a long line of customers through the doors at Antioch’s new BBQ Dunn Right, which opened just three weeks ago.—Kate Bradshaw, The Mercury News, 24 Apr. 2024 Likewise, a breakup song suffused with sadness can resonate with a listener in a rock-solid relationship who is coping with another kind of loss.—Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 2024 Thankfully, Preston suffuses the piece with a gallows humor that proves absolutely crucial.—Longreads, 12 Apr. 2024 Last year’s shows were suffused with themes of mortality, and that carried over on Thursday, in moments that felt even more poignant in a light of a new loss: Springsteen’s mother, Adele, died earlier this year.—Ethan Millman, Rolling Stone, 5 Apr. 2024 Read: Eight books that will take you somewhere new
O Pioneers!, by Willa Cather
This novel, set in the closing decades of the 19th century and suffused with the wide-open lushness of the Nebraska prairie, practically demands to be read in the open air.—Chelsea Leu, The Atlantic, 3 Apr. 2024 For Besson, the ordinary is suffused with sufficient strangeness.—Tim Grierson, Los Angeles Times, 29 Mar. 2024 Her films, although typically set in or near the present day, are suffused with an almost primordial air of fairy-tale enchantment.—Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 28 Mar. 2024 Although Vampire Weekend’s members have settled in Los Angeles, its new album is suffused with thoughts of 20th-century New York City.—Jon Pareles, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'suffuse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from Latin suffūsus, past participle of suffundere "to pour on or in (as an addition), cause (a liquid, color, light) to well up or rise to the surface, fill with a liquid, color or light that wells up from below," from suf-, assimilated form of sub-sub- + fundere "to pour, shed, cast, send forth, disperse" — more at found entry 5
Share