Inflation

Pronunciation

• US IPA: /ɪnˈfleɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Origin

From Middle English, from Old French inflation ("swelling"), from Latin īnflātiō ("expansion", "blowing up"), from īnflātus, the perfect passive participle of īnflō ("blow into", "expand"), from in ("into") + flō ("blow").

Full definition of inflation

Noun

1. An act, instance of, or state of expansion or increase in size, especially by injection of a gas.The inflation of the balloon took five hours.
2. (economics) An increase in the general level of prices or in the cost of living.
3. (economics) A decline in the value of money.
4. (economics) An increase in the quantity of money, leading to a devaluation of existing money.
5. Undue expansion or increase, as of academic grades.
6. (cosmology) An extremely rapid expansion of the universe, theorised to have occurred very shortly after the big bang.

Antonyms

• deflation

Derived terms

• core inflation
• grade inflation
• hyperinflation
• inflationary
• stagflation
• superinflation
• taxonomic inflation

Related terms

• inflate
• conflation
• reflation

Anagrams

• inflatino