inflation

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A general rise in prices over time, which makes money worth less.

   Rising inflation made everyday groceries more expensive.

2. 2
   noun

   The act of filling something with air or gas.

   The inflation of the huge balloon took nearly an hour.

From Middle English, borrowed 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”). By surface analysis, inflate + -ion.

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