inflation
- 1An increase in the amount of money in circulation, which lowers the value of existing money and pushes nominal prices higher.
Like adding more and more chips to a poker game until each chip is worth far less than at the start.
The central bank raised interest rates to bring inflation under control.
Years of rapid inflation wiped out the value of people's savings.
Oppositedeflation
Note
Economists define it from the money side: when more money is created, each unit is worth less, and nominal prices climb to make up the difference. In everyday talk the word names the result, as when a gym fee goes up 10% "due to inflation." Figures corrected for it are described in real rather than nominal terms, and the usual verbs are about restraint: inflation is curbed or brought under control.
- 2The act, process, or state of expanding or growing in size, especially by pumping in a gas or liquid.
Like a water balloon swelling as it fills from the tap.
Rapid inflation of the life raft is critical during an emergency at sea.
The balloon's inflation slowed as the helium tank emptied.
Similarexpansion, swelling, distension
Oppositedeflation
Note
The literal sense, and the one closest to the Latin: īnflō meant "blow into," from in "into" + flō "blow." Air, gas or liquid is pushed in until something swells, whether a balloon, a tire or a raft. It usually takes an of-phrase for the thing being filled (the inflation of the balloon), and it can name a single event or an ongoing state.
- 3An excessive or unwarranted increase in something, such as academic grades rising beyond what students' work merits.
Like handing out trophies to every player until winning one no longer signals anything special.
The inflation of grades has made top scores so common that they barely distinguish students.
Critics blame title inflation for the flood of vice presidents at the firm.
Similarescalation
Oppositedeflation
Note
Borrowed from the economists: when nearly every student gets an A, an A is worth less, just as money is under the economic meaning. It usually works as the second half of a compound (grade inflation, title inflation), and it always carries a judgment. Unlike the neutral swelling of a balloon, this kind of inflation is by definition undue.
- 4An extremely rapid expansion of the universe, thought to have taken place a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang.
Like a wrinkled sheet snapping flat the instant it is pulled tight from every corner.
Cosmic inflation stretched space faster than the speed of light in its first instant.
The theory of inflation explains why the universe looks so uniform in every direction.
Note
Cosmologists use the word for a proposed epoch of exponential expansion, a theory meant to explain why space looks so flat and so uniform on the largest scales. To keep it apart from the economic meaning, writers often say cosmic inflation, and it is usually described as a theory rather than a direct observation.
Practice
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Origin
This word came through Middle English from Old French inflation ("swelling"), from Latin īnflātiō ("expansion, blowing up"). That noun came from īnflō ("blow into, expand"), formed from in ("into") and flō ("blow").