afflict

/əˈflɪkt/ v [T]

Definition

› to make someone or something suffer physically or mentally: He was afflicted with severe asthma. affliction

/əˈflɪk·ʃən/ n [C] › Illiteracy is a serious affliction.

(Definition of afflict v from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

something which threatens to cause problems or unhappiness in the future

Read our blog about how the English language behaves.

Find words and meanings that have just started to be used in English, and let us know what you think of them.