affected
- 1Influenced, changed or harmed by some outside force, event or condition, such as a disaster or a disease.
Regions affected by the trade dispute saw prices climb sharply.
Aid workers reached the affected villages within hours, bringing clean water and tents to families who had lost their homes in the flood.
UsageOften affected by something, or before a noun: the affected villages, badly affected areas.
- 2Simple past tense and past participle of affect.
The new policy affected every department in the company.
The bus strike has affected train service across the city all week.
UsageSpelled with a for influence: the strike affected service (not
incorrect: effected). Effect is usually the noun.Note
One spelling does both jobs. It is the simple past in "the storm affected the compass" and the participle in "roads were affected." After was or were, the participle shades into the "influenced" adjective, and often only the sentence decides between them. The verb behind it once also meant to dispose, incline or assign. Those uses are now archaic, so older texts may use affected in ways a modern reader does not expect.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Affect historically meant to dispose or incline; this sense is now archaic. en.wiktionary.org
- Affect historically meant to assign; this sense is now archaic. en.wiktionary.org
- 3Put on or pretended in order to impress others.
His affected indifference barely hid how much he wanted the job.
Critics mocked the actor's affected delivery in every scene.
UsageUsually before nouns of manner: an affected accent, affected politeness. It means put on, not changed by something.
Similarartificial, insincere, pretentious, theatrical, mannered
Oppositenatural, genuine, sincere, unaffected
Note
The pretense sense can sum up a whole person's manner, not just a single habit. In J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951), an English girl in a new picture is "pretty affected, but very good-looking." Mannered, stagy and stilted are close neighbors.
Less common meanings
- 4Emotionally moved or touched by something.
Visibly affected, the witness paused before describing the accident.
She was genuinely affected by the kindness of total strangers.
UsageOften deeply, visibly or genuinely affected, usually after a verb: she was deeply affected by the news.
Oppositeunmoved
Note
Here the change is in the feelings rather than in circumstances. Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1749) has Mr Dowling "very greatly affected with this relation," using with where present-day English reaches for by.
- 5In older algebra, describing an equation in which the unknown quantity appears raised to more than one power.
Early algebraists devised special rules for handling affected equations.
Older algebra books treated an affected equation, such as one containing both x and x squared, separately from a pure one.
Note
This term belongs mainly to older algebra. Early algebraists spoke of an affected equation, also spelled adfected, and set it against a pure equation, which carries a single power of the unknown. It has nothing to do with pretense or influence. In an old algebra text, the word sorts equations into kinds, and a reader should not take it as a comment on the mathematician's manner.
- 6A person who has been struck by a disease or similar harmful condition.
Showing meanings only.
affected is a form of affect
affect, verb: To have an influence on something or to bring about a change in it. Full entry
- Spelling
- affect → affected: add -ed
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /ɪd/, an extra syllable.
Practice
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