affliction

noun

af·​flic·​tion ə-ˈflik-shən 

1

: a cause of persistent pain or distress

a mysterious affliction

2

: great suffering

felt empathy with their affliction

3

: the state of being afflicted by something that causes suffering

her affliction with polio

Synonyms

• agony
• anguish
• distress
• excruciation
• hurt
• misery
• pain
• rack
• strait(s)
• torment
• torture
• travail
• tribulation
• woe

Examples of affliction in a Sentence

She lost her sight and is now learning to live with her affliction.

He died from a mysterious affliction.

Recent Examples on the Web

This affliction largely evaporated with the passage of the 2017 tax law. —William Baldwin, Forbes.com, 27 Apr. 2025

The finding could improve the treatment of both mental, emotional and physical afflictions. —Michael Franco may 06, New Atlas, 6 May 2025

Paradoxically, these efforts sometimes undermine their own goals, concealing, and at times exacerbating, the afflictions of the most vulnerable. —Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2025

Mat is also remaining in Tar Valon, in the hopes that Nynaeve will be able to help cure him of his affliction, plagued with memories not his own. —Leigh Butler, TIME, 13 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English affliccioun "misery, distress, self-inflicted pain," borrowed from Anglo-French afflicion, borrowed from Late Latin afflīctiōn-, afflīctiō, from Latin afflīgere "to afflict" + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of action nouns

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Rhymes for affliction

• addiction
• constriction
• conviction
• depiction
• eviction
• infliction
• nonfiction
• prediction
• restriction
• antifriction
• benediction
• contradiction

Kids Definition

affliction

noun

af·​flic·​tion ə-ˈflik-shən 

1

: the state of being afflicted

2

: something that causes pain or unhappiness