afflicted 1 of 2

adjective

Definition of afflictednext
as in troubled

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afflicted

2 of 2

verb

past tense of afflict
as in plagued
to cause persistent suffering to the South was afflicted by a severe drought he's been afflicted by nightmares ever since the accident

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of afflicted
Adjective
Some of the bikers pouring into the area are coming from distant states far more afflicted. — CBS News, 10 Aug. 2020
Verb
Lotus seems to have ironed out the hesitancy that previously afflicted the dual-clutch ’box, particularly when parking. — Tim Pitt, Robb Report, 22 July 2026 Forty-nine of the afflicted have been hospitalized; of those, thirty-four have gone home. — News Desk, Artforum, 15 July 2026 Jonestown afflicted Naipaul’s vision, his way of deciphering not just political manias but the dreariness of urban life, the perpetual doom of the nuclear-arms race. — Hua Hsu, New Yorker, 14 July 2026 In the second half of the campaign, he was afflicted by bursitis. — James Horncastle, New York Times, 12 July 2026 The afflicted slowly lose their ability to walk, talk, eat, dress, write, swallow and, eventually, breathe. — Ryan Morik, FOXNews.com, 4 July 2026 Jude, meanwhile, was shifting from tossing cones to tugging at his ears, afflicted with the same malady that had landed several of the toddlers on the room’s version of the injury list. — ABC News, 30 June 2026 They are both afflicted by cognitive and/or hearing issues. — Eric Thomas, Sun Sentinel, 22 June 2026 Two-thirds of respondents afflicted with alpha-gal reported anxiety or depressive disorders in a 2025 University of Missouri survey. — CBS News, 19 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for afflicted
  1. troubled
  2. plagued
  3. disabled
  4. persecuted
  5. feeble
  6. tortured
  7. infirm
  8. besieged
Adjective
  • Beyond America’s troubled EV industry, Tesla is doing more than just surviving.
    — Tim Levin, The Atlantic, 24 July 2026
  • That can open the door for troubled cops to hop from one police department to another.
    — Meg Anderson, NPR, 23 July 2026
Definition of troubled
Verb
  • Jackson broke his foot last training camp when a teammate stepped on it during practice, and that injury plagued him all of 2025, and required an offseason procedure that kept him sidelined all OTAs and minicamp.
    — Omar Kelly, Miami Herald, 27 July 2026
  • As in the last two years, this year’s Tour is plagued by doping.
    — Assistant Sports Editor, Los Angeles Times, 27 July 2026
Definition of plagued
Adjective
  • Too many products slap the label on without including disabled people anywhere in development or testing, treating accessibility as an add-on rather than a design requirement.
    — Keely Cat-Wells, Forbes.com, 22 July 2026
  • When scientists temporarily disabled mole-rats’ olfactory sensory neurons with chemicals, the aggression towards strangers disappeared.
    — Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 21 July 2026
Definition of disabled
Verb
  • The Chinese government denies the Uyghurs have been or are being persecuted.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 24 July 2026
  • As a senator, Marco Rubio was a strong supporter of the bureau and human rights broadly, once arguing from the Senate floor that safeguarding the freedoms of gay men who were persecuted in Chechnya — and all people — was in the national interest.
    — Anna Maria Barry-Jester, ProPublica, 17 July 2026
Definition of persecuted
Adjective
  • Using Neanderthal cranium shapes to estimate specific brain regions’ volume, some investigators claimed to see signs of a mind with feeble linguistic abilities, poor executive function and an unremarkable memory.
    — Cody Cottier, Scientific American, 20 July 2026
  • Lei's team propose that this glitch either strengthened or reoriented, or both, the magnetic field of the Blue Eye Pulsar sufficiently to trigger radio emissions, or at least make feeble radio waves that were already there detectable.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 6 July 2026
Definition of feeble
Verb
  • Dandara dos Santos was tortured and beaten to death by a group of twelve people, who eventually tossed her body in a wheelbarrow, shot her, and posted a video of the crime on social media.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 24 July 2026
  • Yes, Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black boy who was abducted, tortured and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after a White woman accused him of making an advance toward her.
    — Dan Zaksheske OutKick, FOXNews.com, 23 July 2026
Definition of tortured
Adjective
  • Earlier this month, Nancy Guthrie, the elderly and infirm mother of Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, was violently taken from her home in Tucson, Arizona.
    — Tony Maglio, HollywoodReporter, 24 Feb. 2026
  • The four Democratic members of the JBC, which controls the state budget, asked with growing consternation why the Department of Corrections hadn’t brought them a plan to address overcrowding, to step up releases of old and infirm inmates, or to improve its own shortcomings.
    — Seth Klamann, Denver Post, 22 Jan. 2026
Definition of infirm
Verb
  • The species is now endangered, extinct on the Australian mainland for three thousand years and besieged on the island that is its last refuge.
    — John Drake, Forbes.com, 27 July 2026
  • The sidebar will open with Netflix’s Below, from creator Jesse McKeown, a six-part supernatural thriller that centers on a seaside town Newfoundland besieged by a sea creature and stars Mackenzie Davis, Charlie Heaton and Josh Hartnett.
    — Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 23 July 2026
Definition of besieged

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Cite this Entry

“Afflicted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/afflicted. Accessed 29 Jul. 2026.

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Nglish: Translation of afflicted for Spanish Speakers

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