Word of the day · 1 May 2026
inflation
/ɪnˈfleɪʃən/
noun
A general rise in prices that reduces what money can buy; also the act of filling something with air.
In a sentence
- Food inflation pushed the weekly shop higher than last spring.
- The bank raised rates to cool inflation.
- Watch the slow inflation of the raft before you launch.
In an image
Origin
From Latin inflatio (a puffing up), from inflare (to blow into); economics adopted the price-level sense centuries after the physical one.
History
Central banks track inflation as a change in a price index over time. Households feel it in groceries, rent and fares. The balloon sense still appears in everyday speech. Search interest climbs when headlines report hot price data and people want the plain mechanism.
Nearby words
prices · purchasing power · deflation
When the same cash covers less at the till.