conflate

verb

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con·flate | \ kən-ˈflāt

conflated; conflating

Definition of conflate

transitive verb

1a : 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

Synonyms & Antonyms Did You Know? More Example Sentences Learn More about conflate

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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 Despite some biographical similarities, readers should take care not to conflate the author with her protagonist — and certainly not her opinions. — Seija Rankin, EW.com, "Yaa Gyasi harnesses her literary power — and wonders why the world wasn't always listening this hard," 27 Aug. 2020 White Tulsans came to associate North Tulsa with Blackness and to conflate Blackness with criminality. — Victor Luckerson, The New Yorker, "Linking Allies to Action in the Heart of the Black-Bookstore Boom," 27 Aug. 2020 Many not accustomed to seeing large explosions may conflate mushroom clouds and spherical blast waves as nuclear, said Jeffrey Lewis, an arms-control expert and professor at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. — Alex Horton, Washington Post, "Here’s what the videos of the Beirut blast tell us about the explosion," 4 Aug. 2020 Critics also conflate point-to-point encryption with end-to-end encryption. — Hany Farid, Wired, "Congress Needs to Make Silicon Valley EARN IT," 5 July 2020 The critic Bruce Robbins has pointed out that such elegies too easily conflate a loss of magic with a loss of meaning. — James Wood, The New Yorker, "The Scholar Starting Brawls with the Enlightenment," 25 May 2020 His departure comes one day after Attorney General William Barr met privately with media mogul Rupert Murdoch, founder of Fox News, although Smith’s representatives cautioned against conflating the two events. — Washington Post, "Shepard Smith leaves Fox News Channel," 12 Oct. 2019 His departure comes one day after Attorney General William Barr met privately with media mogul Rupert Murdoch, founder of Fox News, although Smith's representatives cautioned against conflating the two events. — David Bauder, chicagotribune.com, "Shepard Smith, one of Fox News Channel’s original hires in 1996, abruptly quits," 11 Oct. 2019 This position effectively conflated the recognition of a patriarchal power structure with its de facto approval. — Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, The New Republic, "Seeing No Evil," 25 Mar. 2020

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.