as in painful
causing or feeling bodily pain
the afflictive disease known as shingles is a reactivation of the virus that causes chicken pox
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Recent Examples of afflictive
Perhaps this afflictive uncertainty can be redefined.
—
Krista Stevens, Longreads, 26 Apr. 2018
Krista Stevens, Longreads, 26 Apr. 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for afflictive
Adjective
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Now, for the first time, nurses from 1950’s children homes break their silence, revealing new details about one of Israel’s most painful and unresolved cases.—
Katie Campione,
Deadline,
2 Aug. 2025
-
Taking action to speak out against the Israeli government was deeply painful and difficult.—
Rachel Timoner,
New York Daily News,
2 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Richardson, who was dealing with a sore right ankle during summer league practices in Orlando, exited early in the third quarter, but was able to return in the final frame.—
Jason Beede,
The Orlando Sentinel,
11 July 2025
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Chisholm missed five weeks toward the beginning of the season with a right oblique strain, then sat out of Sunday’s Subway Series finale at Citi Field for a sore right shoulder.—
Peter Sblendorio,
New York Daily News,
11 July 2025
Adjective
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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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Coupled with a story line about digital avatars who seek to replace the humans in whose images they were shaped, the movie possesses an aching sense of oblivion.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
27 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Afflictive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/afflictive. Accessed 7 Aug. 2025.
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