Subscriber login


Forgot your password?

Library card login

Other

inflation

Syllabification: (in·fla·tion)
Pronunciation: /inˈflāSHən/

Translate inflation | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of inflation

noun

  • 1the action of inflating something or the condition of being inflated:the inflation of a balloon the gross inflation of salaries
  • Astronomy (in some theories of cosmology) a very brief exponential expansion of the universe postulated to have interrupted the standard linear expansion shortly after the Big Bang.
  • 2 Economics a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money:policies aimed at controlling inflation [as modifier]:high inflation rates

Derivatives

inflationism

Pronunciation: /-ˌnizəm/

noun

inflationist

Pronunciation: /-nist/

noun & adjective

Origin:

Middle English (in the sense 'the condition of being inflated with a gas'): from Latin inflatio(n-), from inflare 'blow in to' (see inflate). inflation (sense 2) dates from the mid 19th century

inflation in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of inflation in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

  |  Cite

Word of the day

secretagogue

/ siˈkrētəˌgôg /
noun
a substance that promotes secretion …