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inflate.

To enlarge an object by pushing air (or a gas) into it; to raise or expand abnormally

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɪnˈfleɪt/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɪnˈflæɪt/Australia/ənˈflæɪt/New-Zealand
  1. To enlarge an object by pushing air (or a gas) into it; to raise or expand abnormally

    transitive
    You inflate a balloon by blowing air into it.
  2. To enlarge by filling with air (or a gas).

    intransitive
    The balloon will inflate if you blow into it.
  3. To swell; to puff up.

    figuratively
    to inflate somebody with pride or vanity
  4. To decompress (data) that was previously deflated.

    transitive
  5. To represent something as being more important, better, or worse than it actually is; to exaggerate.

    figuratively · transitive
    Israel routinely claims that the Gaza Ministry of Health, which is run by Hamas, has a tendency to inflate the number of Palestinian casualties in the Gaza Strip.
Where this word comes from

From Latin īnflātus, perfect passive participle of īnflō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Doublet of inblow.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.