What does inflict mean?
To inflict something is to impose it on a person or thing, usually with an emphasis on the resulting harm, hardship, or loss. The phrase can describe physical injury, such as damage inflicted on a building, or figurative suffering, such as a policy that inflicts financial hardship on families. Its negative connotation makes it especially appropriate when describing deliberate action or the consequences of a harmful event. Inflict is often paired with nouns naming the burden imposed, including pain, damage, suffering, punishment, and losses. Although it can sound formal, it is widely used in journalism, legal writing, and everyday descriptions of consequences. The related word afflict is often confused with it, but afflict focuses more on causing distress to someone, whereas inflict focuses on imposing a harmful condition or consequence.
verbTo impose something painful, harmful, or burdensome on someone or something. In its most common use, it means to cause someone to suffer pain, damage, or hardship.
- To impose pain, suffering, punishment, damage, or another harmful condition on a person or thing.
- To cause someone to experience a particular condition, especially an unpleasant one, as a result of an action or event.
- To make a person undergo a specified penalty, loss, or hardship.
"The decision to cancel the project inflicted a significant financial loss on the company."
"The storm inflicted severe damage on the coastal town."
"Her injury was inflicted by a blow from an unseen attacker."
Unlike an injury that merely happens, an infliction is deliberately imposed on someone or something.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of inflict
The verb comes from Latin inflīctere, meaning to inflict or impose, from in- meaning “in” or “upon” and flīctere meaning “to strike.” The English word entered use in the early 17th century in the sense of imposing a punishment or penalty. Its relatives include inflect and inflection, which ultimately come from the same Latin root but developed meanings associated with bending or turning.
Related word forms
How inflict is actually used
The word is formal and often has a deliberately negative tone, emphasizing that harm or difficulty is being imposed. It is commonly used with words such as "pain," "damage," "suffering," "punishment," and "loss."
Easily confused with inflict
Inflict means to impose something harmful on someone or something, whereas afflict usually means to cause a person to suffer from an illness, misfortune, or emotional distress.
Inflict means to impose harm or suffering, while inflect means to change the form of a word, such as changing a noun to plural or a verb to past tense.