Affliction is a noun describing a state of pain, suffering, or distress, often rooted in illness, hardship, or misfortune. It denotes something that causes continual trouble or misery, shaping one's experience. The term emphasizes enduring impact rather than a single incident.
"The region has long suffered under the affliction of drought and famine."
"Her affliction was visible in the tremor of her hands and the weariness in her eyes."
"The community faced economic affliction after the factory closed."
"He spoke of his beloved grandmother, a lifelong affliction that never fully left her."
Affliction comes from Middle English affliccioun, from Old French affliction, ultimately from Latin affectio, from afficere meaning to affect or to distress (ad + figere ‘to fix, to fasten’). The Latin root 'afficere' connotes causing a state or condition, with 'affectus' denoting emotion or condition. In later usage, affliction broadened from medical or physical distress to moral or social suffering, often implying enduring impact rather than a transient ailment. The word entered English in the 14th century and evolved to describe both personal misfortune and general hardship in literature and theology, preserving a sense of persistent trouble that shapes experience more than an isolated incident.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "Affliction" and can often be used interchangeably.
🔄 These words have opposite meanings to "Affliction" and show contrast in usage.
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Words that rhyme with "Affliction"
-ion sounds
Practice with these rhyming pairs to improve your pronunciation consistency:
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Say af-FLĬK-shən, with primary stress on the second syllable. Start with /æ/ as in 'cat', then /f/ lightly, /lɪk/ for the middle, and end with /ʃən/. In IPA: US/UK/AU: /ˌæfˈlɪk.ʃən/. Visualize lips rounding slightly into /æ/ then a clear /f/, followed by a short /l/ and the /ɪ/ vowel, finishing with /ʃən/.
Common mistakes: flattening the /ɪ/ to a schwa in the middle: say /æfˈlɪk.ʃən/ not /æfˈlək.ʃən/. Another error is misplacing stress, pronouncing as af-FLIC-tion; keep the primary stress on the second syllable /ˌæfˈlɪk.ʃən/. Finally, rushing the final /ʃən/ can blur it; articulate a crisp /ʃən/ with a mild, quick ending rather than a dull 'sion'.
US: clear /æ/ in initial, primary stress on second syllable; /ʃən/ ending is pronounced as a light /ən/. UK: similar, but often with crisper /t/ or softer /ʃən/ depending on speaker; rhoticity affects initial vowel length slightly. AU: vowel quality between American and British; /æ/ may be slightly broader; final /ən/ stored as a schwa but still clearly under stress pattern. Overall rhythm is similar, but vowel quality and voicing of surrounding consonants vary slightly.
The difficulty lies in the two-syllable boundary and the consonant cluster after the vowel: /æf/ transitions into /ˈlɪk/ with a subtle 'l' light onset and the affricate-like /kl/ blend. The /ˈlɪk/ segment requires a quick, light tongue lift into /l/ followed by /ɪ/ before the /k/ release. Finally, the terminal /ʃən/ is a soft, reduced syllable that should not become a heavy ‘-tion’.
Affliction has a clear primary stress on the second syllable, which can be surprising because many English words place stress on the first; this pattern is notable in many multi-syllable nouns with -tion endings. The middle /lɪk/ sequence is distinct from many similar words (e.g., 'affection' with /fɛk/ vs /lɪk/). Pay attention to the precise /ˈlɪk/ cluster and the soft, unstressed final /ən/.
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