conflation

noun

con·​fla·​tion kən-ˈflā-shən 

plural conflations

: the action or result of conflating:

a(1)

: blend, fusion

What needs to be highlighted is the power that the state wields through conflations of people and place, and policies and programs.

—Thomas Klak

(2)

: confusion

The conflation of lie and lay is an old problem and, admittedly, an understandable one.

—Cullen Murphy

Clearly the dominant American culture confuses us Mennonites with the Amish, who in fact began as an insurgent faction rebelling from the Mennonites. America's conflation is reasonable, since the Mennonites and the Amish have historically overlapped in many lifestyle choices.

—Rhoda Janzen

b

: a composite reading or text

But this book is not simply a conflation of old dispatches from one of the world's forgotten trouble spots.

—William Boyd

Synonyms

• admixture
• alloy
• amalgam
• amalgamation
• blend
• cocktail
• combination
• composite
• compound
• emulsion
• fusion
• intermixture
• meld
• mix
• mixture
• synthesis

Examples of conflation in a Sentence

the word “robustious” is probably a conflation of “robust” and “boisterous”

Recent Examples on the Web

Maybe your hostility stems from your conflation of the camera with the maternal gaze, the ever-present eye that threatens to obliterate your own point of view. —Meghan O'Gieblyn, WIRED, 25 Mar. 2024

The answer was a conflation of many different factors. —Jeremy Reimer, Ars Technica, 17 Jan. 2023

This false conflation between antisemitism and anti-Zionism cheapens real acts of antisemitism that harm us all. —Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 6 Mar. 2024

But, yesterday a conflation of both was enlisted in an outcry for answers as to why Renewcell, fashion’s leading textile-to-textile recycling technology, had filed for bankruptcy. —Brooke Roberts-Islam, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024

Massie said his vote was due to the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism. —Julia Johnson, Washington Examiner, 14 Jan. 2024

To have failed to create that perceptual distinction, to have allowed a conflation of Hamas and the Palestinians, would have risked making a justified Israeli war against Hamas an unjustified war against the Palestinians. —Bradley Gitz, arkansasonline.com, 13 Nov. 2023

To say that Taylor Swift’s latest look is a fusion of Princess Diana and an archetypal ’90s dad is perhaps an unnecessary conflation of terms. —Daniel Rodgers, Vogue, 4 Oct. 2023

The half-Palestinian model took to Instagram this weekend to share an infographic condemning the conflation of support for Palestinians with antisemitism or support for Hamas — and suddenly, the Israeli government has short-term memory loss. —Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 16 Oct. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1625, in the meaning defined above