inflated
Americanadjective
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distended with air or gas; swollen.
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puffed up, as with pride.
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turgid or bombastic.
his inflated prose.
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unduly increased in level.
inflated costs.
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Economics. unduly expanded in amount, value, or size; characterized by inflation.
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Botany. hollow and enlarged or swelled out.
inflated perianth.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of inflated
Explanation
If it's puffed up and overrated, it's probably inflated — a simple adjective that means blown out of proportion or exaggerated. Think of a balloon. You blow and blow, and it gets bigger and bigger. Sometimes if you blow too much it takes on a distorted shape, or even explodes. Now use that same imagery, but swap the balloon for someone's ego or the price of U2 concert tickets. Both personalities and prices can get inflated beyond reasonableness — the personalities with pretentious hot air and the prices with unnecessary cost.
Vocabulary lists containing inflated
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.
Feldstein Soto has argued the city’s payouts were inflated by a “cascade of horrible” cases that were pending when she took office.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
Similarly, longtime HSI insiders cautioned that using the agency’s databases and tools to search these lists would yield mismatches and wildly inflated results.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
He asserted that these were inflated by his co-author to generate book sales.
From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026
A study by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners said private-letter ratings from small firms, a group that includes Egan-Jones, were often inflated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
As soon as he saw her safely hit the yellow inflated mattress and the firefighters reach for her, Rashid had run out of the room to find Tad and the others.
From "Time Bomb" by Joelle Charbonneau
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.
