Basic Details
Word: Afflicted
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Troubled or made to suffer by an illness, pain or a serious problem.
Synonyms: troubled, stricken, suffering, plagued
Antonyms: unaffected, healthy, relieved
How to Spell Afflicted
Syllables: af - flict - ed
Tricky part: Double f, and the middle is flict with a c and no k. Students also drop the c and write afflited.
Watch out for: aflicted, afflickted, afflited
Memory tip: The flict in afflicted is the flict of conflict: someone afflicted is in a hard fight with pain. Add af in front for the double f.
Usage Examples
Example 1: The village was afflicted by drought for three summers in a row.
Example 2: Doctors from the city came to help families afflicted by the fever.
Example 3: My uncle has been afflicted with back pain since his scooter accident.
Fun Fact
Afflict and inflict are easy to mix up. An illness afflicts a person, but a person inflicts pain or damage on someone else.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word afflicted as used in the sentence:
The coastal towns afflicted by the cyclone are still waiting for electricity.
a) stricken
b) rewarded
c) improved
d) blessed
Show answer
a) stricken. Stricken means badly hit by trouble, the same idea as afflicted.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
afflickted
a) k
b) c
c) f
d) l
Show answer
a) k. Flict is spelt with a plain c, as in conflict and inflict.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one of these words is spelt correctly. Choose its meaning:
1. diseese 2. remidy 3. afflicted 4. epidemmic
a) troubled by illness, pain or difficulty
b) a disease that spreads quickly among many people
c) a cure or treatment for an illness
d) an illness that affects people, animals or plants
Show answer
a) troubled by illness, pain or difficulty. Remedy has an e after the m, disease ends -ease and epidemic has one m, so afflicted stands alone.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
Hundreds of farmers were ldfaecift by the locust attack last year.
a) inflicted
b) deflected
c) afflicted
d) affected
Show answer
c) afflicted. Affected has no l or i and inflicted needs an n; the letters fit afflicted.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A person afflicted with arthritis has ____.
a) pain in the joints
b) a large family
c) a talent for music
d) a new job
Show answer
a) pain in the joints
2. Which of these could leave a town afflicted?
a) the opening of a library
b) an outbreak of cholera
c) a visit from the minister
d) a bumper mango crop
Show answer
b) an outbreak of cholera
