perish vs asphyxiate

perish and asphyxiate both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
perish	No	No	Yes	No
asphyxiate	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, asphyxiate is a hyponym of perish; that is, asphyxiate is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than perish:

perish: pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life
asphyxiate: be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen

Other hyponyms of perish include abort, stifle, suffocate, buy it, pip out, drown, predecease, famish, starve, fall, succumb, yield.

perish (verb)	asphyxiate (verb)
pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life	be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen
	deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing
	impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of