AFFLICTION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does affliction mean? 

• AFFLICTION (noun)
  The noun AFFLICTION has 3 senses:

1. a state of great suffering and distress due to adversity

2. a condition of suffering or distress due to ill health

3. a cause of great suffering and distress

  Familiarity information: AFFLICTION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AFFLICTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A state of great suffering and distress due to adversity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("affliction" is a kind of...):

adversity; hard knocks; hardship (a state of misfortune or affliction)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "affliction"):

cross; crown of thorns (any affliction that causes great suffering)

Derivation:

afflict (cause physical pain or suffering in)

afflict (cause great unhappiness for; distress)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A condition of suffering or distress due to ill health

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("affliction" is a kind of...):

health problem; ill health; unhealthiness (a state in which you are unable to function normally and without pain)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "affliction"):

deformity; malformation; misshapenness (an affliction in which some part of the body is misshapen or malformed)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A cause of great suffering and distress

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("affliction" is a kind of...):

trouble (an event causing distress or pain)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "affliction"):

calvary; martyrdom (any experience that causes intense suffering)

trial; tribulation; visitation (an annoying or frustrating or catastrophic event)

curse; torment (a severe affliction)

attack (a sudden occurrence of an uncontrollable condition)

bane; curse; nemesis; scourge (something causing misery or death)

Derivation:

afflict (cause great unhappiness for; distress)

 Context examples 

Any girl reader who has suffered like afflictions will sympathize with poor Amy and wish her well through her task.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

In the monotony of my life, and in my constant apprehension of the re-opening of the school, it was such an insupportable affliction!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A large bulky figure has as good a right to be in deep affliction, as the most graceful set of limbs in the world.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

He promptly diagnosed her affliction as La Grippe, dosed her with hot whiskey (the remnants in the bottles for which Brissenden was responsible), and ordered her to bed.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A fetal affliction that has a neurological basis and manifests as a developmental disability.

(Fetal Neurodevelopmental Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

A childhood affliction that has a neurological basis and manifests as a developmental disability.

(Neurodevelopmental Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

Yet I should be loth to blame you, for I doubt not that what you said was not meant to sadden me, nor to bring my sore affliction back to my mind.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Private affliction also is the lot of every man; but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have been enough to shake my very soul.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If sympathy and pity can help in your affliction, won't you let me be of some little service—for Lucy's sake?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Miss Tilney continuing silent, she ventured to say, “Her death must have been a great affliction!”

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)