The disease afflicts an estimated two million people every year.
the South was afflicted by a severe drought
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In recent years, several of the slender towers on Billionaires’ Row have been afflicted with excessive swaying and creaking, problems that are gleefully treated in the press as morality plays about rising inequality.—Eric Lach, The New Yorker, 3 Feb. 2025 According to the most recent report from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, hunger afflicts 17.6% of Venezuela’s population, a rate that is among the highest in the region.—Antonio Maria Delgado, Miami Herald, 2 Feb. 2025 Speaking exclusively with Variety ahead of the festival, Gomes says the idea for the film came out of reflecting alongside Guimarães on what currently afflicted them.—Rafa Sales Ross, Variety, 1 Feb. 2025 A bit more sunlight on a deadly danger that afflicts 73 percent of fraternity or sorority kids is probably not a bad thing.—Daniel R. Depetris, Newsweek, 10 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for afflict
Word History
Etymology
Middle English afflihten "to excite, become distressed," probably verbal derivative of affliht, aflyght "disturbed, upset," borrowed from Latin afflīctus, past participle of afflīgere "to knock or strike down, ruin, distress severely," from ad-ad- + flīgere "to strike down" — more at profligate entry 1
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