inflect

English

WOTD – 13 May 2007

Etymology

From Latin īnflectō, from in- (“in”) + flectō (“I bend”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈflɛkt/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -ɛkt

Verb

inflect (third-person singular simple present inflects, present participle inflecting, simple past and past participle inflected)

1. (transitive) To cause to curve inwards.
2. (transitive, music) To change the tone or pitch of the voice when speaking or singing.

   The actress has a great skill of being able to inflect her voice to any situation.

3. (transitive, grammar) To vary the form of a word to express tense, gender, number, mood, etc.
4. (intransitive, grammar, of a word) To be varied in the form to express tense, gender, number, mood, etc.

   In Latin, adjectives and nouns inflect a lot, but inflection is minimally found in Modern English.

5. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (transitive) To influence in style.

   No other poet has inflected me in style as much as Milton.

Synonyms

• (to bend or curve inwards): inbend

Derived terms

• inflectable
• inflection
• inflective
• inflexion
• misinflect
• noninflecting

Translations

cause to curve inwards

Bulgarian: извивам навътре (izvivam navǎtre) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Dutch: verbuigen (nl) Finnish: taivuttaa sisäänpäin Ottoman Turkish: بوكمك (bükmek), اكمك (eğmek) Russian: сгиба́ть (ru) impf (sgibátʹ), гнуть (ru) impf (gnutʹ), согну́ть (ru) pf (sognútʹ), вгиба́ть (ru) impf (vgibátʹ), вогну́ть (ru) pf (vognútʹ)

music: change tone or pitch

Bulgarian: модулирам (bg) (moduliram) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Dutch: please add this translation if you can Finnish: muuttaa äänensävyä Russian: модули́ровать (ru) impf (modulírovatʹ) Spanish: modular (es)

grammar: vary the form of a word

Armenian: please add this translation if you can Bulgarian: скланям (bg) (sklanjam), спрягам (sprjagam) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Czech: ohýbat (cs) impf Danish: bøje (da) Dutch: verbuigen (nl) Esperanto: fleksii Finnish: taivuttaa (fi) French: infléchir (fr) Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: flektieren (de), beugen (de) Greek: κλίνω (el) (klíno) Hungarian: ragoz (hu) Italian: coniugare (it), flettere (it) Japanese: 働く (ja) (hataraku) Lithuanian: kaityti Manx: yn-fill Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: bøye (no) Old English: bīeġan Polish: odmieniać (pl) impf, odmienić (pl) pf Portuguese: variar (pt), flexionar (pt) Romanian: flexiona (ro) Russian: склоня́ть (ru) impf (sklonjátʹ) (decline), спряга́ть (ru) impf (sprjagátʹ) (conjugate) Slovene: pregibati impf Spanish: conjugar (es) (of a verb), declinar (es) (of a noun) Swedish: böja (sv) Thai: ผัน (th) (pǎn) Turkish: ses değiştirmek (tr)

influence in style

Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Dutch: please add this translation if you can Finnish: vaikuttaa (fi)

See also

• conjugate
• decline
• deflect