afflicted

[uh-flik-tid]

adjective

1. greatly distressed or troubled by bodily or mental pain.

   The severity of these symptoms predicts how well the afflicted individuals can live independently and maintain employment.

noun

(used with a singular or plural verb)

1. Usually the afflicted a person or persons distressed or troubled in such a way.

   Behind each of these killer diseases is the pain of despair, loneliness, and loss in the lives of the bereaved and the afflicted.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of afflict.

Other Word Forms

• afflictedness noun
• unafflicted adjective
• unafflictedly adverb
• unafflictedness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of afflicted¹

afflict ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

It goes without saying, but this series is not for anyone afflicted with arachnophobia.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The characters are not afflicted with speechifying; silences allow the viewer to enter into the spaces between them, and to let their experience echo with one’s own.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The sector was partially afflicted by new worries about loans by regional banks, tied to comments made by Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, earlier this week.

Read more on Barron's

But it also suggests they’re taking care to step right — not in order to avoid trouble because self-censorship is not a curse that seems to have ever afflicted them — but to fine-tune their case.

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The individual afflicted feels guilt, shame and anger, but ultimately, and perhaps more important, feels — and is — objectively helpless to do anything about it.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• depressed 
• stricken