affliction
noun /əˈflɪkʃn/
/əˈflɪkʃn/
[uncountable, countable] (formal)- pain and difficulty or something that causes itExtra ExamplesTopics Illnessc2
- Deafness is a terrible affliction.
- He suffered from an affliction of the eyes from an early age.
- He suffers from an unfortunate affliction.
- These poor people are in great affliction.
- We can never know when these afflictions will strike us.
- He bore his affliction with great dignity.
- The monks believed that the disease was an affliction sent by God.
Word OriginMiddle English (originally in the sense ‘infliction of pain or humiliation’, specifically ‘religious self-mortification’): via Old French from Latin afflictio(n-), from the verb affligere, from ad- ‘to’ + fligere ‘to strike, dash’.