How to Use afflict in a Sentence

afflict

verb
  • The disease afflicts an estimated two million people every year.
  • That last one seems to afflict the Twins more than most.
    — Phil Miller, Star Tribune, 13 Aug. 2020
  • What afflicts the great star of the court can equally afflict the great star of the quad.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 20 Jan. 2025
  • The pastor asked the group to name some of the plagues that afflicted Egypt.
    — Angie Leventis Lourgos, Chicago Tribune, 1 Dec. 2024
  • The seizure is not the only calamity to afflict the dos Santos clan of late.
    — The Economist, 9 Jan. 2020
  • And the hosts are making money from the downtime that afflicts most cars.
    — Carlton Reid, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2024
  • This idea that this virus doesn't afflict children is not so.
    — ABC News, 16 Oct. 2022
  • The list of Sky Islands birds afflicted by the loss of insects is long.
    — Brandon Loomis, The Arizona Republic, 22 Sep. 2024
  • Though Buck was still afflicted at the end of the hour, Minear confirms that Buck did break the curse.
    — Andy Swift, TVLine, 24 Oct. 2024
  • Yet it has been buffeted by the problems that afflict the rest of the kingdom.
    — The Economist, 28 Apr. 2018
  • The crash was the second large air disaster to afflict Ukraine this year.
    — Bloomberg.com, 26 Sep. 2020
  • Mullins' concept of the job is mostly to afflict his charges with stand-up and improv.
    — Robert Lloyd, latimes.com, 3 Apr. 2018
  • Now the biggest threat to the country’s wildlife is poaching, the scourge that afflicts parks and reserves across Africa.
    — Washington Post, 27 July 2019
  • Doctors race to find out what is afflicting them to save their lives.
    — Hal Boedeker, orlandosentinel.com, 14 Nov. 2019
  • Oh, do those seem like the people who are doing the afflicting?
    — Jennifer Wright, Harper's BAZAAR, 30 Apr. 2018
  • This, in turn, led to waves of protest and a series of arsons that afflicted 24 churches over the next two years.
    — The Editors, National Review, 28 Feb. 2025
  • But this is not the sort of series that will leave evil unpunished or afflict the good with senseless tragedy.
    — Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 14 Aug. 2024
  • The disease afflicts about 5,000 patients in the United States and causes rapid nerve cell loss in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 7 Nov. 2019
  • As the number of those afflicted has grown, so has the number of tools to help them navigate.
    — Caren Chesler, Popular Mechanics, 6 Mar. 2019
  • The virus has afflicted tens of thousands of people worldwide and killed more than 1,300.
    — Scientific American, 13 Feb. 2020
  • And boy, has the press ever done a good job lately of comforting the afflicted.
    — Jennifer Wright, Harper's BAZAAR, 30 Apr. 2018
  • The number of folks afflicted in the U.S. is staggering and growing year by year.
    — Bryant Stamford, The Courier-Journal, 24 Oct. 2024
  • The drug is the first medicine shown to slow progression of the disease, which afflicts some 6 million Americans.
    — Ed Silverman, STAT, 11 July 2023
  • Guinea-Bissau is not the only place in west Africa to be afflicted by cocaine.
    — The Economist, 21 Nov. 2019
  • Hot enough that the World Cup is Brazil’s fever, and the political future of the country is afflicted.
    — Martin Rogers, USA TODAY, 6 July 2018
  • Egg prices have jumped to all-time highs due in part to an outbreak of avian flu, or bird flu, that has been afflicting egg-laying hens in the US since 2022.
    — Jennifer Hauser, CNN, 28 Feb. 2025
  • Hagibis is the fourth major rainfall disaster to afflict Japan in the past 14 months; Tokyo was hit twice in less than 2 months.
    — Dennis Normile, Science | AAAS, 22 Oct. 2019
  • Next door in Syria, fuel shortages afflict most of the country.
    — Washington Post, 24 July 2021
  • There is a growing measles outbreak in Texas, with 34 cases reported just last week alone; most of the afflicted are children.
    — Kristina Behr, Parents, 27 Feb. 2025
  • Heat waves can gum up hospitals enough to bring deadly consequences even beyond patients directly afflicted, a new study finds.
    — Ben Geman, Axios, 20 Feb. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'afflict.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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