afflatus
Americannoun
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inspiration; an impelling mental force acting from within.
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divine communication of knowledge.
noun
Etymology
Origin of afflatus
1655–65; < Latin afflātus a breathing on, equivalent to af- af- + flā- (stem of flāre to blow 2 ) + -tus suffix of v. action
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.
The cost of his afflatus to U.S. interests will be greater than he imagines.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 18, 2026
He enhanced the model with jet travel and a visionary, indefinitely utopian afflatus like that of a Buckminster Fuller or a Marshall McLuhan.
From The New Yorker • Jul. 15, 2019
So one picks up this novel ready to be transformed by the afflatus of its hipnicity.
From Washington Post • May 12, 2015
This channeling of distant voices parallels stories not only of how the songs were passed down among the Shakers but also of how they were received originally, through ghostly visitations and divine afflatus.
From New York Times • May 29, 2014
He endeavored to trap and nourish the impression in order to predict, and perhaps even control, what incident would occur next, but the afflatus melted away unproductively, as he had known beforehand it would.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
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.
