inflation.

1. A sustained increase in the overall level of prices, reducing what a unit of money can buy.

2. The process of filling an object with gas so that it expands or reaches the required pressure.

3. An artificial or exaggerated increase in a reported quantity, claim or evaluation.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• price inflation
• inflation rate

On the page

The report measured inflation with a price index rather than the cost of one item.

Wages rose in money terms but failed to keep pace with inflation.

Usage notes

Primary category: economics / business / social science. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: financial analysis, risk evaluation, comparison, explanation. Disciplines: economics, finance, business. Commonness: moderately common.