affecting
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of affecting
Explanation
If the final scene has you sniffling and reaching for the Kleenex, the movie you’re watching could be described as affecting, meaning it makes you emotional. You might be familiar with the noun affect, which refers to a feeling or emotion. Affecting is just the adjective form of that word — so you can probably guess that it describes things that provoke strong feelings or emotions. You might watch an affecting basketball game, for example, or see an affecting performance of a play. The feeling caused by something affecting can be good or bad, happy or sad. The key is that it stirs up a strong feeling.
Vocabulary lists containing affecting
Pay Attention! Synonyms for "Interesting"
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Krik? Krak!
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“There are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA, and we strongly denounce the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others,” a league spokesperson said last week in a statement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
There are 55 statistical measures affecting each team’s index.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
Lord Woolley, who is Black, said the Arday scandal is affecting all Black academics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
But in the first three months of this year there were no payments at all in almost 61,000 Collect and Pay cases - affecting 86,000 children, according to the DWP.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
But the technology issues were no longer just in the cockpit, affecting only pilots, they were everywhere.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
