a state of pain, distress, or grief; misery: They sympathized with us in our affliction.
2.
a cause of mental or bodily pain, as sickness, loss, calamity, or persecution.
Origin: 1300–50;Middle Englishaffliccioun < Latinafflīctiōn- (stem of afflīctiō). See afflict, -ion
Related forms
af·flic·tion·less, adjective
o·ver·af·flic·tion, noun
pre·af·flic·tion, noun
Synonyms 2. mishap, trouble, tribulation, calamity, catastrophe, disaster. Affliction, adversity, misfortune, trial refer to an event or circumstance that is hard to bear. A misfortune is any adverse or unfavorable occurrence: He had the misfortune to break his leg.Affliction suggests not only a serious misfortune but the emotional effect of this: Blindness is an affliction.Adversity suggests a calamity or distress: Job remained patient despite all his adversities.Trial emphasizes the testing of one's character in undergoing misfortunes, trouble, etc.: His son's conduct was a great trial to him.
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.