inflation
//ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən//
Forms
- Plural
- inflations
Definitions
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.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3343
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
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.