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afflict

verb

Simple meaning

Cause physical pain or suffering in.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

uhflikt

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

əfˈlɪkt

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. Cause physical pain or suffering in

  2. transitive

    To cause (someone) pain, suffering or distress.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Frequency
Rare

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Cause physical pain or suffering in

Used this way, afflict is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Strong
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Strongly negative / painful
Usage feel
Everyday but emotionally strong

Where it naturally appears

  • Personal/emotional discussion
  • Literature/storytelling

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use afflict

  • “She was afflicted by the death of her parents.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

afflict mankindafflict humanitynow afflictafflict willingly

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: cause physical pain or suffering in

ail

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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.