afflicted

American  

[uh-flik-tid] / əˈflɪk tɪd /

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.

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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

Etymology

Origin of afflicted

afflict ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

Their decision will likely transform the already heated debate over social media addiction as a concept, what role apps may play in engineering it, and whether individuals like Kaley can prove they’re afflicted.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 25, 2026

This partly explains, Cembalest writes, the deindustrialization that has afflicted its economy so debilitatingly in the last few years.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 9, 2026

The squad has also been afflicted by a sickness bug, which dramatically revealed itself in the quarter-final when Nathan MacKinnon threw up while sat on the bench.

From BBC • Feb. 22, 2026

Random abdominal pains have afflicted me since college — the price of a stressful job, I always figured.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 3, 2026

Hence when we domesticated social animals, such as cows and pigs, they were already afflicted by epidemic diseases just waiting to be transferred to us.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Related Words

• depressed
• stricken