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Words with affect as the root, followed by their use in a sentence, include the following:Īffectation: A noun meaning “self-conscious behavior”: “The girl’s affectation of sophisticated maturity was undercut by the relentless snapping of her chewing gum.”Īffection: A noun meaning “kind or loving emotion”: “Her grandfather’s deep affection for her was obvious in his heartwarming smile.”ĭisaffected: An adjective meaning “discontented, rebellious”: “Disaffected youth dismayed by the poor job market and the larger issue of a society that does not seem to value them have been joining the protest movement in ever greater numbers.” (This word is a case of an antonym that has outlived the original term from which it was derived in counterpoint writers and speakers no longer express, in the sense of “favorably disposed,” that a person is affected.) The various senses of affect, each followed by a sentence demonstrating them, follow:Ī noun meaning “mental state”: “In his report, the psychiatrist, noting his lack of expression or other signs of emotion, described his affect as flat.”Ī verb meaning “to produce an effect, to influence”: “I knew that my opinion would affect her choice, so I deliberately withheld it.”Ī verb meaning “to pretend” or “to put on”: “She tried to affect an air of nonchalance, though she was visibly agitated.”
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What will be the effect of closing Main Street?īelow you will find less common meanings and related or derivative words. The loss of his father affected him profoundly.Įffect is usually a noun, meaning the result of an action. Affect, derived from affectus, from the Latin word afficere, “to do something to, act on,” is easily conflated with effect, borrowed from Anglo-French, ultimately stemming from the Latin word effectus, from efficere, “to bring about.” What’s the difference between affect and effect?Īffect is usually a verb, meaning to influence or act upon. Among the pairs of words writers often confuse, affect and effect might be the most perplexing, perhaps because their meanings are so similar.
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