affect
noun · verb
Simple meaning
To change or influence someone or something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhfehktSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əˈfɛkt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
psychology
The conscious subjective aspect of feeling or emotion
psychology
A subjective feeling experienced in response to a thought or other stimulus; mood, emotion, especially as demonstrated in external physical signs.
verb
transitive
To move to emotion.
Make believe with the intent to deceive
transitive
To make a show of; to put on a pretense of; to feign; to assume. To make a false display of.
transitive
To influence or alter.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The conscious subjective aspect of feeling or emotion
Used this way, affect is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use affect
- “The medicine affects my heart rate.”verb
- “This new ruling affects your business.”verb
- “Will the new rules affect me?”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The semantic role of an entity that is not the agent but is directly involved in or affected by the happening denoted by the verb in the clause.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to move to emotion
Commonly Confused With
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.