Definition

1. Noun:
   • A general and progressive increase in prices: A sustained rise in the general price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time, leading to a decrease in the purchasing power of money.
   • The act of filling something with air: The process of filling or becoming filled with air or gas.
   • Lack of elegance as a consequence of being pompous and puffed up with vanity: A style of speech or writing characterized by pretentiousness and empty grandeur.
   • (Cosmology) A brief exponential expansion of the universe: A theory that the universe underwent an extremely rapid expansion in the moments following the Big Bang.

Examples of Usage

• Noun (Economic Sense):
  • The central bank aims to keep inflation under 2%.
  • High inflation erodes the value of people's savings.
• Noun (Physical Sense):
  • The inflation of the balloon took only a few seconds.
• Noun (Stylistic Sense):
  • The politician's speech was criticized for its empty inflation.
• Noun (Cosmological Sense):
  • The theory of cosmic inflation explains the uniformity of the universe.

Advanced Usage

• "Runaway/hyperinflation": An extremely high and typically accelerating inflation rate.
  • The country experienced hyperinflation, with prices doubling every few hours.
• "Inflation target": A specific rate of inflation set as a goal for a central bank's monetary policy.
  • The government has set a clear inflation target for the next fiscal year.
• "Inflation-adjusted": A value that has been modified to account for the effects of inflation, showing its "real" worth.
  • Her salary increase was not enough to keep up with inflation-adjusted living costs.

Variants and Related Words

• Inflate (verb): To fill with air or gas; to increase (prices, currency) abnormally.
  • They had to inflate the life raft quickly.
  • The government was accused of trying to inflate the currency.
• Inflationary (adjective): Characterized by or tending to cause economic inflation.
  • The new policy could have an inflationary effect on the economy.
• Disinflation (noun): A slowdown in the rate of price inflation.
• Deflation (noun): A general decline in prices for goods and services, the opposite of inflation.

Synonyms

• Price rise(s): An increase in prices.
• Escalation: A rapid increase, often used for prices or costs.
• Expansion: The action of becoming larger or more extensive. (For the cosmological and physical senses).

Related Phrases

• "Cost-push inflation": Inflation caused by an increase in the costs of production (e.g., wages, raw materials).
• "Demand-pull inflation": Inflation caused by an increase in aggregate demand that outpaces aggregate supply.
• "Core inflation": A measure of inflation that excludes volatile items like food and energy prices.

Related Idioms

• "Inflation is taxation without legislation": A saying highlighting how inflation can reduce the real value of money and savings, acting like a hidden tax.
• "To inflate one's ego": To make someone feel more important or proud than is justified (related to the stylistic sense of pretentiousness).
  • All that praise from his fans really inflated his ego.

Noun

1. the act of filling something with air
2. lack of elegance as a consequence of being pompous and puffed up with vanity
3. (cosmology) a brief exponential expansion of the universe (faster than the speed of light) postulated to have occurred shortly after the big bang
4. a general and progressive increase in prices
   • in inflation everything gets more valuable except money