conflate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
- conflation noun
Etymology
Origin of conflate
First recorded in 1600–10; from Latin conflātus “fused together,” past participle of conflāre “to fuse together,” from con- con- + flāre “to blow” ( blow 2 )
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.
You see this sort of language used when people conflate various definitions of globalism.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 5, 2026
From a human-resources perspective, it makes little sense to effectively conflate vacation days with work-from-home days, and it also seems to run counter to promoting goodwill.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 28, 2025
He said the media and advocates often conflate “solitary confinement” with what he termed restrictive housing, where people are sometimes put under mental health observation, for medical reasons or during investigations.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 29, 2025
I get very unhappy when people conflate criminality with disorder or uncleanliness, or with people who are suffering from addictions or mental illness, or who are unhoused.
From Slate • Aug. 15, 2025
For their part, police publicly conflate all hacking crimes with robbing payphones with crowbars.
From The Hacker Crackdown, law and disorder on the electronic frontier by Sterling, Bruce
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.
