deflation

C2+ Topic:Money & Finance

US /dɪˈfleɪʃən/ UK /dɪˈfleɪʃən/ See IPA manual

noun

Meanings

1

noun
a fall in the general price level; the act of letting out air

Prolonged deflation discouraged consumer spending.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a fall in the general price... depreciation contraction decline reduction collapse

Opposites

inflation expansionreflation

Word family

Forms deflated

Derived forms deflationarydeflationist

Related forms deflateinflate conflate flatus

Etymology

From deflate, a back-formation modeled on inflate, from Latin de- ('out of') + flare ('to blow'), plus the noun suffix -ion. The economic sense dates from the early 20th century.

flare Latin *bʰleh₁- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Money & Finance Word Formation & Derivatives

# deflation

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** dɪˈfleɪʃən
**IPA (UK):** dɪˈfleɪʃən

## Meanings
1. a fall in the general price level; the act of letting out air

## Examples
- Prolonged deflation discouraged consumer spending.

## Synonyms
- depreciation
- contraction
- decline
- reduction
- collapse

## Antonyms
- inflation
- expansion
- reflation

## Derived Forms
- deflationary
- deflationist

## Related Forms
- deflate
- inflate
- conflate
- flatus

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: flare
- Root: *bʰleh₁-

## Etymology
From deflate, a back-formation modeled on inflate, from Latin de- ('out of') + flare ('to blow'), plus the noun suffix -ion. The economic sense dates from the early 20th century.

## AI Etymology
Deflation is from deflate, a back-formation modeled on inflate, from Latin de- ('out of') + flare ('to blow'), plus the noun suffix -ion. The economic sense dates from the early 20th century. The ancestry passes through Latin flare and Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁-. The prefix de- often marks removal, reversal, or downward motion in Latin formations, helping to explain the word's surface structure; the suffix -ion marks an action, process, or result, so the English form is shaped by recognizable word formation as well as by its inherited or borrowed base. In present use as a noun, it means "a fall in the general price level; the act of letting out air", keeping the historical formation close to the word's ordinary semantic work. Related words include deflate, inflate, conflate, and flatus; derived forms include deflationary and deflationist.

## Topics
- Money & Finance
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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deflation

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