afflicted

American

[uh-flik-tid] / əˈflɪk tɪd /

adjective

greatly distressed or troubled by bodily or mental pain.

The severity of these symptoms predicts how well the afflicted individuals can live independently and maintain employment.

noun

(used with a singular or plural verb)

Usually the afflicted a person or persons distressed or troubled in such a way.

Behind each of these killer diseases is the pain of despair, loneliness, and loss in the lives of the bereaved and the afflicted.

verb

the simple past tense and past participle of afflict.

Other Word Forms

afflictedness noun
unafflicted adjective
unafflictedly adverb
unafflictedness noun

Etymology

Origin of afflicted

afflict ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Explanation

Afflicted means "impaired" or "stricken" and usually refers to a person who is mentally or physically unfit, or has been grievously affected by disease. This adjective's Latin root, afflictare, means "to damage, harass, or torment," which may sometimes be a good description of how an afflicted person feels. Those with mental illness may be tormented by voices in their head and thus be unable to distinguish what is real from what is not. Those afflicted by ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease, slowly lose control of their muscles and become paralyzed.

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Vocabulary lists containing afflicted

"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin

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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.

It became clear that what at first appeared to him and his father as another of the floods that afflicted Mystic every few years grew inexorably through the night until it became monstrous.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 18, 2026

I hope you are not afflicted, as I am, with the urge to struggle more than necessary, but if you are, this recipe is for you.

From Salon • Apr. 13, 2026

This partly explains, Cembalest writes, the deindustrialization that has afflicted its economy so debilitatingly in the last few years.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 9, 2026

But if England can avoid the early scoreboard slippage that has afflicted them in the past matches and stick tight to the hosts, they may be rewarded.

From BBC • Mar. 6, 2026

This one massive miscarriage of justice had afflicted the whole community with despair and made it hard for me to be dispassionate.

From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023