Infliction

//ɪnˈflɪkʃən// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of inflicting or something inflicted; an imposition.

    "The boot, thumbscrews, the shackles, and a contraption called the "warm hose", were only a few of the inflictions being too terrible to mention."

  2. 2
    an act causing pain or damage wordnet
  3. 3
    the act of imposing something (as a tax or an embargo) wordnet
  4. 4
    something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
impositionafflictionannoyanceannoyancebanebete noire

Example

More examples

"The boot, thumbscrews, the shackles, and a contraption called the "warm hose", were only a few of the inflictions being too terrible to mention."

Etymology

Borrowed, perhaps via French, from Latin īnflīctiōnem.

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