inflect
Americanverb (used with object)
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inflects,
present (3rd person singular)
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inflected,
past participle, past
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inflecting
present participle
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to alter, adapt, or modulate (the voice).
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to alter or adapt in tone or character: jazz-inflected music.
the power of storytelling inflected through a feminist sensibility;
jazz-inflected music.
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Grammar.
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to apply inflection to (a word).
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to recite or display all or a distinct set of the inflections of (a word); decline or conjugate.
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to bend; turn from a direct line or course.
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Botany. to bend in.
verb (used without object)
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inflects,
present (3rd person singular)
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inflected,
past participle, past
-
inflecting
present participle
verb
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(grammar) to change (the form of a word) or (of a word) to change in form by inflection
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(tr) to change (the voice) in tone or pitch; modulate
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(tr) to cause to deviate from a straight or normal line or course; bend
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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inflectednessnoun
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inflectornoun
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inflectiveadjective
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noninflectedadjective
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uninflectedadjective
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uninflectiveadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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inflectsimple
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inflectssimple
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have inflectedperfect
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has inflectedperfect
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am inflectingprogressive
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are inflectingprogressive
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is inflectingprogressive
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have been inflectingperfect progressive
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has been inflectingperfect progressive
Past
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inflectedsimple
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had inflectedperfect
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was inflectingprogressive
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were inflectingprogressive
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had been inflectingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of inflect
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English inflecten, from Latin inflectere “to bend in,” equivalent to in- in- 2 + flectere “to bend, curve”; cf. flex 1
Explanation
To inflect is to speak in a way that reflects — and changes with — your mood. After hearing tragic news, you'll inflect what you say with the sadness you feel. The changing pitch of your voice inflects your words with meaning, and another way to inflect is to change the form of a word for grammatical reasons, including tense, number, or gender. When you inflect verbs, it's also called conjugation. For example, when you change the verb "to be" from "I am" to "we are," you inflect it. The Latin root of inflect is inflectere, "to bend," and also "to change."
Vocabulary lists containing inflect
The Devil's Arithmetic
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Spy School
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flec, flex
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“The signal markets latched onto today is that optical content per AI rack is about to inflect higher,” Baptista analyst Ishan Majumdar said, referring to optical components in data-center racks.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 2, 2026
U.S. gross gaming revenue was $72 billion in 2024, and the analysts think Robinhood can inflect higher than that given its demographic and distribution advantages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025
Bias: Value-oriented “accumulate” for patient investors; build positions gradually and be prepared for extended periods of underperformance until technicals and sentiment inflect.
From Barron's ● Dec. 11, 2025
If the two producers’ generally dissimilar sounds — Dessner leans pastoral, and Antonoff, synthetic — both inflect the record, it could be anything from folk to indie pop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2024
But he was not adapted to general conversation, he must have it to himself, at all events he must be able to inflect his voice.
From The Fisher Girl by Bj?rnstjerne Bj?rnson
Jefferies analyst Samad Samana expects that investors will return to application-software names “when growth inflects alongside AI revenues,” he wrote in a Sunday note to clients.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 2, 2026
He inflects Hamlet’s glorious speeches with modern color but little meaning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2025
He inflects his songs with bits of Vermont attitude and lore, and has collaborated with Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves.
From New York Times ● Nov. 3, 2023
“It’s the absence of God that inflects this great moral responsibility on us,” she told the New Yorker.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 2, 2022
An accidental is operative during the bar in which it occurs, and no further, unless it inflects the last note of a bar, and the next bar begins with the same note.
From How to Write Music Musical Orthography by Clement A. Harris
Rosen: I did not have a simple relationship with Dean, so if the documentary is inflected emotionally with our personal experience, it wasn’t all positive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026
Lest we forget, the Iraq War–era jingoism that inflected American pop culture at the time was also a fundamental motif of the 2000s internet.
From Slate ● Mar. 20, 2026
The carrier said Wednesday that demand inflected positively in early July and maintained momentum in the ensuing months, pushing total operating revenue up 1.1% to a third-quarter record of $6.95 billion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2025
As a result, Western Digital’s free-cash-flow yield inflected positive at the end of 2024 and has increased ever since.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 18, 2025
The latter thought, inflected with both promise and peril, should concern us all.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
“The company says it is seeing margins inflecting, demand strengthening and increased diversification of its customer base.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
“We continue to aim to deepen our lead in all of them. And all of them feel like they’re inflecting at the same time, which is great.”
From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026
“We expect the investor debate to remain very sensitive to inflecting top-line momentum.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 10, 2025
“While economic uncertainty remains, we believe the profit cycle is inflecting higher,” the strategists wrote in a BofA Global Research report.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 31, 2023
In inflecting the vowels, the voice, in order to rise, begins low; and, in order to fall, it begins high.
From The American Union Speaker by John D. (John Dudley) Philbrick
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.