Definition of CONFLATE

Did You Know?

We're not just blowing hot air when we tell you that conflate can actually be traced back to the same roots as the English verb blow. Conflate derives from conflatus, the past participle of the Latin verb conflare ("to blow together, to fuse"), which was formed by combining the prefix com- with the verb flare, meaning "to blow." The source of Latin flare is the same ancient root word that gave us blow. Other descendants of flare in English include afflatus ("a divine imparting of knowledge or power"), inflate, insufflation ("an act of blowing"), and flageolet (a kind of small flute-the flageolet referring to a green kidney bean is unrelated).

Examples of conflate in a Sentence

be careful not to conflate gossip with real news the movie conflates documentary footage and dramatized reenactments so seamlessly and ingeniously that viewers may not know what is real and what is not

Recent Examples on the Web

Courtney Radsch, the advocacy director for the Committee to Protect Journalists, warned against conflating the two. — Caroline Simon, USA TODAY, "Capital Gazette shooting highlights the dangers facing today's journalists," 3 July 2018 Several current and former officials said that Mr. Trump regularly conflates Amazon with The Post. — Michael D. Shear, Nick Wingfield And Cecilia Kang, New York Times, "Trump Attacks Amazon, Saying It Does Not Pay Enough Taxes," 29 Mar. 2018 Pharmaceutical manufacturers contacted by STAT largely dismissed the report either as conflating separate issues or having undervalued the ways in which the tax bill benefited the companies, and, in turn, their employees and consumers. — Lev Facher, STAT, "A new messaging tactic on the left: Drug prices rise, as pharma prospers from tax law," 9 July 2018 Yet conflating the latter with the former has long allowed EU elites and governments of Europe’s northern core to divert the conversation from their own obligations while holding the moral high ground as defenders of liberal democratic norms. — Angelos Chryssogelos, Time, "The Populism Debate Ignores the Real Lessons of Italy's Political Crisis," 31 May 2018 People tend to conflate it with the ADA and assume they are allowed to bring their ESA into all public places. — Wes Siler, Outside Online, "You May Never Fly with Your Fake Service Dog Again," 30 May 2018 So patients shouldn't conflate data gathered from an at-home device with receiving a real diagnosis from a doctor. — Jordyn Hermani, Indianapolis Star, "Fishers teen discovers she has heart defect after wearing Fitbit," 14 July 2018 Speaking from his own experience, Blake cautioned against conflating creativity with psychological suffering. — Andy Hermann, Billboard, "James Blake Speaks Out on Managing 'Suicidal Thoughts' & Staying Healthy on the Road," 2 July 2018 So although Trump claimed those gaps were his reason for pulling out of JCPOA, according to the Washington Post, his statement conflated several unrelated issues. — Politifact, Teen Vogue, "President Donald Trump Lies About Iran and North Korea," 11 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'conflate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.