conflate

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verb con·flate \ kən-ˈflāt \

Definition of conflate

conflated; conflating

transitive verb

1 a :to bring together :fuse

b :confuse

2 :to combine (things, such as two readings of a text) into a composite whole

The editor conflated the two texts.

… a city of conflated races and cultures …
—Earl Shorris

conflate was our Word of the Day on 01/27/2014. Hear the podcast!

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 of conflate from the Web

Instead, despite etymological faultiness in conflating two different words—

— john e. mcintyre, baltimoresun.com, "Don't bother picking up that gauntlet," 11 July 2017
Trump's tweet conflated two parts of the email scandal.

— john wagner, chicagotribune.com, "Podesta calls Trump 'our whack job' president in response to error-filled tweet," 7 July 2017
And more importantly, to conflate sexism and racism erases the very specific and personal challenges of each.

— de elizabeth, Teen Vogue, "Emilia Clarke Says Sexism Is "Like Dealing With Racism"," 29 June 2017
Modern sports culture is constantly conflating legacy with ring count.

— lee jenkins, SI.com, "How Allen Iverson finally found his way home," 26 June 2017
But don’t conflate the notion of ‘swift, certain, and proportionate’ with that meaning ‘

— samantha melamed, Philly.com, "Pennsylvania offers a new 'smart on crime' approach. But does it actually work?," 26 June 2017
His piece conflates the circumstances that exist at a public high school, a private university, and the Republic of Iran.

— dp opinion, The Denver Post, "Columnist’s comparison of Arapahoe High School election to Iran (2 letters)," 10 June 2017
Comey did not provide classified information to the press and Trump’s attempt to conflate real leaking with what Comey did (and many in his administration regularly do) is cynical and destructive.

— alex shephard, New Republic, "There was nothing “vindicating” about James Comey’s testimony about Donald Trump.," 9 June 2017
McCain seemed to be conflating multiple investigations, unable to distinguish between the case of Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail account and the case of Russian hacking.

— vanityfair.com, "The Trump-Comey Cage Match Reveals the President’s Greatest Weakness," 8 June 2017

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.

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).