inflation

Pronunciation: /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a general and progressive increase in prices
  2. noun (cosmology) a brief exponential expansion of the universe (faster than the speed of light) postulated to have occurred shortly after the big bang
  3. noun lack of elegance as a consequence of being pompous and puffed up with vanity

Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French inflation (“swelling”), from Latin īnflātiō (“expansion", "blowing up”), from īnflātus, the perfect passive participle of īnflō (“blow into, expand”), from in (“into”) + flō (“blow”). By surface analysis, inflate + -ion.

In classic literature

Synonyms

rising prices

Semantic network

Broader (hypernyms)
economic process
Narrower (hyponyms)
stagflation, demand-pull inflation, reflation, cost-pull inflation
Opposite (antonyms)
deflation, disinflation

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