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the extreme condition caused by lack of oxygen and excess of carbon dioxide in the blood, produced by interference with respiration or insufficient oxygen in the air; suffocation.
Contemporary Examples

Homicidal violence including blunt force injury, sharp force injury, asphyxia, and gunshot wounds cannot be excluded.
Autopsies on Hannah Anderson’s Family Bring Police No Closer to a Motive Christine Pelisek September 23, 2013

Historical Examples

As Preyer puts it, the activity of the cerebrum is a sort of respiration, while its repose is a sort of asphyxia of this organ.
Scientific American, September 29, 1883 Supplement. No. 404 Various

But the asphyxia was not caused by escaping illuminating-gas.
The Silent Bullet Arthur B. Reeve

Insensibility, stertorous breathing, lividity of face and body, and death from asphyxia.
Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology W. G. Aitchison Robertson

He had been buried by decomposed rock, and had died from asphyxia.
The Comstock Club Charles Carroll Goodwin

Thirteen of the children did not breathe at delivery, six were asphyctic, and two cases relapsed into asphyxia.
The Ethics of Medical Homicide and Mutilation Austin O’Malley

asphyxia is from the Greek, and means an “absence of pulse.”
A Practical Physiology Albert F. Blaisdell

Patient may die within a few hours from asphyxia or from exhaustion.
Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology W. G. Aitchison Robertson

The person is suffering from a lack of oxygen; that is, from asphyxia, or suffocation.
A Practical Physiology Albert F. Blaisdell

This is known to be the case in cholera, certain fevers, asphyxia, etc.; and the fact was probably obtained from Hippocrates.
Fathers of Biology Charles McRae

noun
lack of oxygen in the blood due to restricted respiration; suffocation. If severe enough and prolonged, it causes death
n.

1706, “stoppage of pulse,” from Modern Latin, from Greek asphyxia “stopping of the pulse,” from a- “not” (see a- (3)) + sphyzein “to throb.” The current sense of “suffocation” is from 1778, but it is a “curious infelicity of etymology” [OED] because victims of suffocation have a pulse for some time after breathing has stopped.

asphyxia as·phyx·i·a (ās-fĭk’sē-ə)
n.
A condition in which an extreme decrease in the amount of oxygen in the body accompanied by an increase of carbon dioxide leads to loss of consciousness or death.
asphyxia
(ās-fĭk’sē-ə)
A condition characterized by an extreme decrease in the amount of oxygen in the body accompanied by an increase of carbon dioxide, caused by an an inability to breathe. Asphyxia usually results in loss of consciousness and sometimes death.