Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Oppressive, stifling, suffocating: Describes an atmosphere, environment, or feeling that is uncomfortably heavy, lacking fresh air, and causing difficulty in breathing or a sense of mental pressure.
   • Stuffy: Specifically refers to air that is stale, hot, and uncomfortably close, often in a confined space.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Căn phòng nhỏ này thật ngột ngạt. (This small room is really stuffy/oppressive.)
  • Bầu không khí trong cuộc họp thật ngột ngạt. (The atmosphere in the meeting was truly stifling.)
  • Sau cơn bão, không khí trở nên ngột ngạt và tĩnh lặng. (After the storm, the air became oppressive and still.)

Advanced Usage

• Used metaphorically to describe social, political, or emotional situations that feel constricting and unbearable.
  • Anh ấy cảm thấy ngột ngạt trong mối quan hệ đó. (He felt stifled in that relationship.)
  • Một chế độ ngột ngạt. (An oppressive regime.)

Variants and Related Words

• Ngột (adj): A less common, shortened form implying a suffocating intensity, often found in literary contexts.
• Ngộp thở (v): To feel suffocated, to be unable to breathe. This is a verbal phrase describing the physical sensation caused by a environment.
  • Tôi ngộp thở trong đám đông. (I am suffocating in the crowd.)

Synonyms

• Stifling: Making one feel constrained and unable to breathe freely.
• Suffocating: Causing a severe inability to breathe; extremely oppressive.
• Oppressive: Unjustly inflicting hardship and constraint, especially of a political or atmospheric nature.
• Close: (Of the weather or a room) uncomfortably warm and lacking air circulation.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• Cảm giác ngột ngạt: A feeling of being stifled or oppressed.
  • Cô ấy rời đi vì cảm giác ngột ngạt. (She left because of the stifling feeling.)
• Sự ngột ngạt: The state or condition of being oppressive.
  • Sự ngột ngạt của mùa hè. (The oppressiveness of summer.)

1. Oppressive, stuffy, stifling
   • Phòng đóng kín cửa ngột ngạt
     The room is stuffy because all windows and doors are tightly closed