affliction
noun/əˈflɪkʃn/
/əˈflɪkʃn/
[uncountable, countable] (formal)- pain and difficulty or something that causes it
- She suffered terrible afflictions in her life.
Extra ExamplesTopics Health problemsc2- She suffered a painful affliction that left her bed-bound.
- Like many other people, I have a terrible affliction where I romanticize the past.
- the increasingly common affliction of smartphone addiction
- He suffers from an unfortunate affliction.
- These poor people are in great affliction.
- We can never know when these afflictions will strike us.
- He bore his affliction with great dignity.
- The monks believed that the disease was an affliction sent by God.
Word OriginMiddle English (originally in the sense ‘infliction of pain or humiliation’, specifically ‘religious self-mortification’): via Old French from Latin afflictio(n-), from the verb affligere, from ad- ‘to’ + fligere ‘to strike, dash’.Want to learn more?
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