Inflect: meaning, definitions and examples

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inflect

[ ɪnˈflɛkt ]

^{Context #1}

grammar

Change the form of (a word) to express a particular grammatical function or attribute, typically tense, mood, person, number, case, and gender.

Synonyms

conjugate, decline, vary

Examples of usage

Students learn how to inflect verbs in different tenses.
She inflects the nouns to match the gender of the subject.
We need to inflect the adjectives to agree with the number of the noun.

^{Context #2}

music

Change the pitch of (a musical note) by raising or lowering it.

Synonyms

intonate, modulate

Examples of usage

He inflected the note to give it a more emotional tone.
The singer inflected her voice to convey the sadness of the song.

^{Context #3}

linguistics

Change the form of (a word) to show its syntactic relationship to other words in a sentence.

Synonyms

change, conjugate, decline

Examples of usage

In English, we inflect nouns to show plural or possessive forms.
The language inflects verbs to indicate tense, aspect, and mood.

Translations

Translations of the word "inflect" in other languages:

🇵🇹 infletir

🇮🇳 झुकाना

🇩🇪 beugen

🇮🇩 membengkokkan

🇺🇦 згинати

🇵🇱 zginać

🇯🇵 屈折させる

🇫🇷 infléchir

🇪🇸 inflectar

🇹🇷 bükmek

🇰🇷 구부리다

🇸🇦 يثني

🇨🇿 ohýbat

🇸🇰 ohýbať

🇨🇳 弯曲

🇸🇮 upogniti

🇮🇸 beygja

🇰🇿 иілу

🇬🇪 მოხრა

🇦🇿 əyilmək

🇲🇽 inflectar

Word origin

The word 'inflect' originates from the Latin word 'inflectere', which means 'to bend'. It first appeared in English in the late 16th century. Over time, 'inflect' has been used in various fields such as grammar, music, and linguistics to describe the act of changing the form of something. Its usage has evolved to encompass different contexts and applications.