Conflate

//kənˈfleɪt// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A conflate text, one which conflates multiple version of a text together.
Verb
  1. 1
    To combine or mix together.
  2. 2
    mix together different elements wordnet
  3. 3
    To fail to properly distinguish or keep separate (things); to mistakenly treat (them) as equivalent. broadly

    "“Bacon was Lord Chancellor of England and the first European to experiment with gunpowder.” — “No, you are conflating Francis Bacon and Roger Bacon.”"

  4. 4
    To deliberately draw a false equivalence or association, typically in a tacit or implicit manner as propaganda and/or an intentional distortion or misrepresentation of the subject matter. broadly

    "But in reality, the order simply furthers the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies by continuing to conflate immigration issues with criminal ones."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Combining elements from multiple versions of the same text. not-comparable

    "Why the redactor created this conflate version, despite its inconsistencies, is a matter of conjecture."

Synonyms

All synonyms
blendcoalescecomminglefluxfuseimmix

Example

More examples

"There's a tendency to conflate proposing a solution with actually solving the problem. I think it's important to differentiate between the two."

Etymology

Attested since 1541: from Latin cōnflātus, past passive participle of cōnflō (“fuse, kindle, blow together”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.