inflation

/ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/
noun

An act, instance of, or state of expansion or increase in size, especially by injection of a gas or liquid.

NWL Collins ENABLE

Noun 4 meanings

  1. An act, instance of, or state of expansion or increase in size, especially by injection of a gas or liquid.

    “The inflation of the balloon took five hours.”

  2. An increase in the quantity of money, leading to a devaluation of existing money, adjusted for by way of higher nominal values.

    “Due to inflation, the monthly gym fee is rising by 10% from January.”

  3. Undue expansion or increase, as of academic grades.

  4. An extremely rapid expansion of the universe, theorized to have occurred very shortly after the Big Bang.

Definitions: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA) via Kaikki/Wiktextract

Where it comes from

Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French inflation (“swelling”), from Latin īnflātiō (“expansion", "blowing up”), from īnflātus, the perfect passive participle of īnflō (“blow into, expand”), from in (“into”) + flō (“blow”). By surface analysis, inflate + -ion.

Similar and opposite words

Opposite
deflation

INFLATION at a glance

INFLATION has 9 letters and scores 12 points in Scrabble (I 1 + N 1 + F 4 + L 1 + A 1 + T 1 + I 1 + O 1 + N 1) and 15 in Words With Friends, before board bonuses. It ranks #5,595 by how often it appears in everyday English. It is valid in ENABLE, NWL2023, Collins/SOWPODS.

Rhymes with inflation

All rhymes

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