inflect
verb/ɪnˈflekt/
/ɪnˈflekt/
(grammar)Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they inflect | /ɪnˈflekt/ /ɪnˈflekt/ |
| he / she / it inflects | /ɪnˈflekts/ /ɪnˈflekts/ |
| past simple inflected | /ɪnˈflektɪd/ /ɪnˈflektɪd/ |
| past participle inflected | /ɪnˈflektɪd/ /ɪnˈflektɪd/ |
| -ing form inflecting | /ɪnˈflektɪŋ/ /ɪnˈflektɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive] if a word inflects, its ending or spelling changes according to its grammatical function in a sentence; if a language inflects, it has words that do this
- Verbs inflect for tense and person.
- Most languages of the world inflect.
Oxford Collocations DictionaryInflect is used with these nouns as the subject:- verb
- noun
- verb
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- [transitive, usually passive] to change the form of a word according to its grammatical function
- be inflected (for something) Arabic verbs are inflected for person, number and gender.
Word Originlate Middle English (originally in a technical sense, ‘to bend’ or ‘deflect something’): from Latin inflectere, from in- ‘into’ + flectere ‘to bend’.
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inflect