Alison LurieRosemary MahoneyDavid BarronBill Overton
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 comes from conflatus, a form of the Latin verb conflare (“to blow together, to fuse”), which was formed by combining the prefix com-, meaning “with” or “together,” with the Latin verb flare, meaning “to blow.” Blow’s ancestor, the Old English word blāwan, shares an ancestor with flare. When two or more things are conflated, they are figuratively “blown together” either by someone’s confusion or ingenuity. Other descendants of flare in English include flavor, inflate, and, well, flatulent.
Examples of conflate in a Sentence
Anna Giaritelli, The Washington Examiner, 28 Feb. 2026
The incident at the Legislature showed how people conflate Latino Idahoans with immigrants, ACLU of Idaho spokesperson Rebecca De León said.
—Idaho Statesman, 24 Feb. 2026
Given that women in other countries do wear lipstick as an act of resistance today, suggesting that American feminists did so in 1912 conflates their wildly different cultural contexts, and blurs one’s sense of what constitutes public dissidence.
—Literary Hub, 18 Feb. 2026
That restraint is precisely what feels absent in much of today’s discourse, where criticism of state action is often conflated with hatred of a people, and where historical trauma is sometimes used to silence moral questions rather than deepen them.
—Ed Gaskin, Boston Herald, 15 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for conflate
Cite this Entry
“Conflate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conflate. Accessed 3 Mar. 2026.
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