affects

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of affect.

   Rising sea temperature affects the migration of many fish species.

   A single careless comment affects the morale of the entire team.

   Note

   The verb form that goes with a single subject: the drought affects crops, but droughts affect them. After a modal it returns to the bare form (it may affect). Every use takes a direct object, whether the influence is general, emotional, or medical, as in the disease affects the liver. That object is also what separates it from the plural noun for feelings, which shares its spelling.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of affect.

   Researchers sorted the participants' affects by intensity and duration.

   Positive affects such as joy and contentment correlate with better health.

   Note

   A plural that counts feelings one by one. Joy and contentment become separate affects, each an emotion as it shows in outward signs, and in psychology that observable side is the point. Older English also used affects for moods and for desires, but both senses are now obsolete. The same spelling is the present-tense verb (it affects us), so the noun usually travels with an adjective or possessive: positive affects, the patient's affects.

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