affront
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
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to insult, esp openly
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to offend the pride or dignity of
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obsolete to confront defiantly
Synonym Usage
See insult.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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affrontednessnoun
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affronternoun
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reaffrontnoun
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unaffrontedadjective
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affrontedlyadverb
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affrontinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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affrontsimple
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affrontssimple
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have affrontedperfect
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has affrontedperfect
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am affrontingprogressive
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are affrontingprogressive
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is affrontingprogressive
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have been affrontingperfect progressive
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has been affrontingperfect progressive
Past
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affrontedsimple
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had affrontedperfect
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was affrontingprogressive
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were affrontingprogressive
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had been affrontingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of affront
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English afrounten, from Middle French af(f)ronter “to strike in the face,” from unattested Vulgar Latin affrontāre, derivative of Latin phrase ad frontem “at or toward the forehead” (as the seat of one's feelings or dignity). See ad-, front
Explanation
An affront is an action that causes offense. If someone blows smoke in your face after you've asked him to put out his cigarette, you would consider it an affront. Affronter was an old French word meaning "to confront" or "slap in the face." It's from the Latin, ad frontem, meaning "to the face." Sure, a slap in the face would still be considered an affront, but other non-physical actions would also count. Some would even call a misplaced apostrophe an affront to the English language. Don't confuse affront with effrontery, which means "presumptuousness."
Vocabulary lists containing affront
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
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"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak, Part Four
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Our Town
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
For them, the dance floor was not an affront.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
“It’s of course an affront to the victims of the Holocaust to to call Germany to abandon its culture of memory, but it’s also an imminent danger to German democracy.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
Meloni's government colleagues and MPs called the remarks offensive, damaging to Italy's dignity and deserving of an apology, while opposition members condemned the comments as an unacceptable affront to the country as a whole.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
Soccer, Luna believes, represents an affront to the individualistic mindset that plagues today’s world because, by nature, it must happen in community.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
Now that they were shaheed, packing up and running was an even worse affront, a betrayal, a disavowal of the sacrifice her sons had made.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
The exploitation of the poor, migrants and women are also described as affronts to human dignity.
From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2024
Californians are unsettled, anxious and, in some cases, livid over homelessness, soaring gas prices, obscene housing costs, crime and all manner of affronts that undermine California’s golden promise — not to mention their day-to-day lives.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2022
That this should make one acutely alert to affronts, even if micro.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 11, 2022
Two of the shows on this list, David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Berlin Alexanderplatz,” were affronts to convention when they first appeared decades ago.
From New York Times ● May 20, 2020
The affronts hurled at suffering and defeat by prosperous and exultant malice are especially Satanic.
From The Gospel According to St. Mark by Chadwick, G. A.
"He brings in the female demographic because he is so sexy - but he appeals to men. He's an honest, good, authentic, down-to-earth type of individual. So you don't really get affronted by him."
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
An afterthought if not a redheaded stepchild, though expect affronted fellow media outlets to freak out because of what NBC News once was, not what it is.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
But it wasn’t just Catholics who were affronted.
From Slate ● Apr. 15, 2026
And all indications are that he is prepared to inflict considerable economic and environmental damage to assuage his affronted pride.
From Seattle Times ● May 19, 2024
He said it all affronted, as if Rishi had purposely conjured up the fog to ruin his visit.
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
He was a peacock: intent on blinding small people with his brilliance, affronting an older generation he detested and belittling everyone but himself - especially Vivienne.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2022
He added that the imposing structure of his 1881 novel was laid on a “single small cornerstone, the conception of a certain young woman affronting her destiny.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2017
It’s a mildly affronting experience that — as with some other signifiers of the modern world, a child’s noisy video game included — seems to help push him into nature.
From New York Times ● Sep. 1, 2015
Improving public schools without affronting those who run them is a delicate enterprise.
From Time Magazine Archive
And now by affronting of both the Armies, the plots and labours of many moneths, were reduced to the hazard of a few houres.
From The Lives of the III Normans, Kings of England: William the First, William the Second, Henrie the First by Hayward, John
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
