inflection

American  

[in-flek-shuhn] / ɪnˈflɛk ʃən /

especially British, inflexion

noun

• inflections
  plural

1. modulation of the voice; change in pitch or tone of voice.

2. Grammar. Also

   1. the process or device of adding affixes to or changing the shape of a base to give it a different syntactic function without changing its form class.

   2. the paradigm of a word.

   3. a single pattern of formation of a paradigm.

      noun inflection; verb inflection.

   4. the change in the shape of a word, generally by affixation, by means of which a change of meaning or relationship to some other word or group of words is indicated.

   5. the affix added to produce this change, as the -s in dogs or the -ed in played.

   6. the systematic description of such processes in a given language, as in serves from serve, sings from sing, and harder from hard (contrasted with derivation).

3. a bend or angle.

4. Mathematics. a change of curvature from convex to concave or vice versa.

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inflection British  

/ ɪnˈflɛkʃən /

noun

1. modulation of the voice

2. (grammar) a change in the form of a word, usually modification or affixation, signalling change in such grammatical functions as tense, voice, mood, person, gender, number, or case

3. an angle or bend

4. the act of inflecting or the state of being inflected

5. maths a change in curvature from concave to convex or vice versa See also point of inflection

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inflection Cultural  

1. A change in the form of a word to reflect different grammatical functions of the word in a sentence. English has lost most of its inflections. Those that remain are chiefly possessive ('s), as in “the boy's hat”; plural (-s), as in “the three girls”; and past tense (-d or -ed), as in cared. Other inflections are found in pronouns — as in he, him, his — and in irregular words such as think/thought, child/children, and mouse/mice.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• preinflection
  noun
• inflectional
  adjective
• inflectionless
  adjective
• inflectionally
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• inflections
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of inflection

1525–35; variant spelling of inflexion < Latin inflexiōn- (stem of inflexiō ) a bending. See inflect, -ion

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Explanation

Inflection refers to the ups and downs of a language. Even if you can’t understand Italian yet, the inflection in your professor’s voice should tip you off to whether she's asking a question, giving a command, or making a joke. What began in the 1500s as a noun of action spelled inflexion has since evolved into inflection, a word with grammatical connotation. Inflection most often refers to the pitch and tone patterns in a person’s speech: where the voice rises and falls. But inflection also describes a departure from a normal or straight course. When you change, or bend, the course of a soccer ball by bouncing it off another person, that’s an example of inflection.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

inflection inflections

But there’s also a recognition here that the way through that inflection point will involve some inconvenient alliances in the face of powerful business threats.

From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026

Comparable Chinese open-weight models like Z.ai’s GLM and Alibaba’s Qwen charged 6 to 12 cents, around 90% less—that factor of 10 inflection point.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026

Rubio said the world was at an "inflection point".

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

Sometimes inflection points only become apparent in retrospect.

From Slate ● Oct. 2, 2026

The fog sucked the tremor of inflection in his voice, and the sentence came out sounding flat, lifeless.

From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon

“Around major turning points, including the post-global financial crisis disinflation and post-pandemic inflation surge, neither diffusion measure identified inflections in the trend materially earlier than core PCE inflation,” the Nomura economists note.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026

The singer-rapper’s 2018 debut album, “Lady Wrangler,” was almost entirely hip-hop with a few twangy inflections in the instrumentation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

While Yih did identify several risks—including tariffs, geopolitical risks, and demand uncertainty —she said the company’s actions and early financial inflections suggest that “the worst may be behind it.”

From Barron's ● Mar. 11, 2026

On Karma, that includes everything from the Brazilian funk rhythms of Ceremony, to pop-punk inflections of In My Head, which riffs on the sounds of Good Charlotte and Avril Lavigne.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2025

Me: “‘I do not know which to prefer, / The beauty of inflections / Or the beauty of innuendos, / The blackbird whistling / Or just after.’”

From "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green

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Related Words

• articulation
• pronunciation
• timbre
• tone of voice

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