afflict
Americanverb (used with object)
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afflicts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
afflicted,
past participle, past
-
afflicting
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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afflicternoun
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overafflictverb (used with object)
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preafflictverb (used with object)
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afflictiveadjective
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self-afflictingadjective
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unafflictingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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afflictsimple
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afflictssimple
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have afflictedperfect
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has afflictedperfect
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am afflictingprogressive
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are afflictingprogressive
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is afflictingprogressive
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have been afflictingperfect progressive
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has been afflictingperfect progressive
Past
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afflictedsimple
-
had afflictedperfect
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was afflictingprogressive
-
were afflictingprogressive
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had been afflictingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of afflict
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English afflicten, from Latin afflīctus “distressed,” past participle of afflīgere “to cast down” ( af- af- + flīg- “knock” + -tus past participle suffix); replacing Middle English aflight, from Middle French aflit, from Latin; see inflict
Explanation
To afflict is to cause suffering, pain, or misery. It’s often associated with medical conditions. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is most likely to afflict someone who spends many hours every day typing on our computers. We get afflict from the Latin word affligere, meaning “to strike down,” which is an old fashioned way of saying to get sick, or to have a condition of some kind. You could argue that chronic indecision was the main problem to afflict Hamlet, or that saying "um," "like," and "you know" are speech tics that afflict teens.
Vocabulary lists containing afflict
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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.
See Examples For:
The cost of common conditions that afflict retirees — from chronic illness to cardiovascular disease to cognitive decline — can deplete your savings with alarming speed.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 15, 2026
The “true failures” that afflict the city “are choices made in the city of L.A.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
However distanced you may feel from these effects, it’s worth pointing out that historically, what happens to Black workers comes to afflict all of America.
From Slate ● Sep. 10, 2025
These hot, dry, east-to-west winds caused by a high-pressure system are typical of the Santa Ana winds, which can afflict Southern California more than a dozen times per year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2025
I sometimes wonder which of these will afflict me, later; because I know one of them will.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
Yet only by accident has the U.K. come to suffer a more obvious instability than afflicts other countries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
But if Ireland’s radically asymmetrical relationship with the U.S. is distinctive, the crisis it represents is global and afflicts many other small and medium-size nations.
From Salon ● Mar. 16, 2025
To get coverage they need support, and to get support they need coverage - the vicious circle that afflicts all but the two main parties in Westminster.
From BBC ● May 31, 2024
This language disorder afflicts more than 1 in 300 Americans each year, including Wendy Williams and Bruce Willis.
From Science Daily ● May 28, 2024
People say he’s angry, and hermitlike, but it's loneliness that afflicts him.
From "Son" by Lois Lowry
Throughout this year, the entire country seems to have been afflicted with the weather-app blues.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026
Several European nations have been afflicted by wildfires this summer during a succession of heatwaves.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026
But as one POW’s descendant told Mike Cherney, it’s also the best hope yet to close a wound that has afflicted his family for three generations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
"I don't know of any other center in the world that trains exorcists," Syquia said of the two-storey facility built largely with donations from local families of the previously afflicted.
From Barron's ● Jul. 19, 2026
Ferula took him by the arm and led him out of that afflicted room.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
He explains how he believes Alcaraz’s tragic death likely came to be and how officers have become desensitized to issues afflicting America’s prisons.
From Slate ● Aug. 13, 2026
In 2005, Boeing agreed to pay $30 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that pollutants from the hilltop lab were responsible for range of cancers, auto-immune disorders and tumors afflicting nearby residents.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
What follows are the factors afflicting each region or market.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 17, 2026
Their case is helped by the crisis afflicting Dundee University and evidence that much of further education is heading deep into the red and facing possible closures.
From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2026
Or if one wished to think biologically rather than architecturally, the body politic had yet to develop its immunities to the political diseases afflicting all new nations.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
