INFLATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does inflation mean? 

• INFLATION (noun)
  The noun INFLATION has 4 senses:

1. a general and progressive increase in prices

2. (cosmology) a brief exponential expansion of the universe (faster than the speed of light) postulated to have occurred shortly after the big bang

3. lack of elegance as a consequence of being pompous and puffed up with vanity

4. the act of filling something with air

  Familiarity information: INFLATION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INFLATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A general and progressive increase in prices

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

inflation; rising prices

Context example:

in inflation everything gets more valuable except money

Hypernyms ("inflation" is a kind of...):

economic process (any process affecting the production and development and management of material wealth, or, according to Carmine Gorga, Ph.D., author of the book 'The Economic Process', the process of production of real wealth, distribution of ownership rights over real and monetary wealth, and consumption or expenditure of monetary wealth to purchase real wealth)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "inflation"):

cost-pull inflation (inflation caused by an increase in the costs of production)

demand-pull inflation (inflation caused by an increase in demand or in the supply of money)

reflation (inflation of currency after a period of deflation; restore the system to a previous state)

stagflation (a period of slow economic growth and high unemployment (stagnation) while prices rise (inflation))

Antonym:

deflation (a contraction of economic activity resulting in a decline of prices)

disinflation (a reduction of prices intended to improve the balance of payments)

Derivation:

inflate (increase the amount or availability of, creating a rise in value)

inflate (cause prices to rise by increasing the available currency or credit)

inflationary (associated with or tending to cause increases in inflation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(cosmology) a brief exponential expansion of the universe (faster than the speed of light) postulated to have occurred shortly after the big bang

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("inflation" is a kind of...):

blowup; detonation; explosion (a violent release of energy caused by a chemical or nuclear reaction)

Domain category:

cosmogeny; cosmogony; cosmology (the branch of astrophysics that studies the origin and evolution and structure of the universe)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Lack of elegance as a consequence of being pompous and puffed up with vanity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

inflation; ostentation; ostentatiousness; pomposity; pompousness; pretentiousness; puffiness; splashiness

Hypernyms ("inflation" is a kind of...):

inelegance (the quality of lacking refinement and good taste)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The act of filling something with air

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("inflation" is a kind of...):

enlargement; expansion (the act of increasing (something) in size or volume or quantity or scope)

Antonym:

deflation (the act of letting the air out of something)

Derivation:

inflate (become inflated)

inflate (fill with gas or air)

 Context examples 

The universe began in a hot soup of particles that rapidly spread apart in a period called inflation.

(Most Distant Black Hole, NASA)

Issue associated with the inability of a device and/or device components to expand or enlarge with the intended inflation agent (e.g. saline or air).

(Inflation Issue Associated with Medical Device, Food and Drug Administration)

I wish I could forget the roll of the red eyes and the fearful blackened inflation of the lineaments!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

PEF records the maximum flow that can be sustained for 10 milliseconds on forced expiration starting from full inflation of the lungs.

(Peak Expiratory Flow, NCI Thesaurus)

A rate of inflation or deflation of a manometric device based on the unit of pressure equal to 133,332 Pa or 1.316E10-3 standard atmosphere during period of time equal to one sixtieth of a minute.

(Millimeter of Mercury per Second, NCI Thesaurus)