# inflation

Pronunciation: US say "in-FLAY-shuhn" /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/; UK

## Noun

1. An increase in the amount of money in circulation, which lowers the value of existing money and pushes nominal prices higher.
   - Simple: A rise in prices that happens when there is more money around, so each dollar buys less.
   - _The central bank raised interest rates to bring inflation under control._
   - _Years of rapid inflation wiped out the value of people's savings._
2. The act, process, or state of expanding or growing in size, especially by pumping in a gas or liquid.
   - Simple: The act of making something bigger by filling it with air or gas.
   - _Rapid inflation of the life raft is critical during an emergency at sea._
   - _The balloon's inflation slowed as the helium tank emptied._
3. An excessive or unwarranted increase in something, such as academic grades rising beyond what students' work merits.
   - Simple: An unfair or unhealthy rise in something, such as school grades getting higher than they should be.
   - _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._
4. An extremely rapid expansion of the universe, thought to have taken place a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang.
   - Simple: A very fast growth of the whole universe that scientists think happened just after the Big Bang.
   - _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._

## 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").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/inflation (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).