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 afflictive Perhaps this afflictive uncertainty can be redefined. Krista Stevens, Longreads, 26 Apr. 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for afflictive
Adjective
  • Past disasters have left a painful mark for many, but they’re connected by strong community ties and have come together at vigils to honor and pray for the victims.
    Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN Money, 13 Oct. 2025
  • But the film is most moving in its quieter moments, when the longest and most painful goodbye mellows into something like acceptance, tinged with gratitude for the moments that remain to be lived.
    Jessica Kiang, Variety, 13 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • On Lia’s first day back, though, her throat was sore all morning.
    Eli Cahan, Rolling Stone, 16 Oct. 2025
  • That is a sight for sore eyes in Chicago.
    Evan Massey, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • In this aching, unorthodox historical drama, Davies tells the story of the pacifist poet and veteran Siegfried Sassoon, whose experiences fighting in the First World War forever transformed him.
    Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Braxton shares an aching need to be vulnerable only to realize by album’s end that such unions can result in horrible betrayal, her words of lament surrounded by swelling, lush orchestration.
    Clarence A. Haynes July 3, Literary Hub, 3 July 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Afflictive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/afflictive. Accessed 21 Oct. 2025.

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