as in painful
causing or feeling bodily pain
the afflictive disease known as shingles is a reactivation of the virus that causes chicken pox
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Recent Examples of afflictive
Perhaps this afflictive uncertainty can be redefined.
—
Krista Stevens, Longreads, 26 Apr. 2018
Krista Stevens, Longreads, 26 Apr. 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for afflictive
Adjective
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Whether a client hires a single architect to design a house or a team to work on a downtown plan with multiple community stakeholders, the architect-client relationship is rarely one of a painful struggle.—
Matt Shaw,
Forbes,
28 Feb. 2025
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Throughout her childhood, Dee Dee subjected her Gypsy-Rose to years of painful medical procedures that were not needed.—
Angel Saunders,
People.com,
28 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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Clevinger was eventually sidelined with a sore elbow and then needed disk replacement surgery on his neck on August 1, an operation that ended his season.—
Jared Wyllys,
Forbes,
21 Feb. 2025
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The 200-person pool is large enough for swimming, but most guests just soak sore muscles in the mineral-rich water (between 98 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit) while gazing at Mount Rundle and other snowy peaks.—
Cindy Hirschfeld,
New York Times,
20 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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Somebody Somewhere is tiny: a gorgeous, introspective, intimate story about a woman with devastatingly mundane problems whose chief obstacle is her own aching sense of grief and dislocation.—
Kathryn VanArendonk,
Vulture,
9 Dec. 2024
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In this novel about the shape-shifting nature of love, Parsons captures Kit’s grief in aching and honest terms.—
Annabel Gutterman,
TIME,
6 Dec. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Afflictive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/afflictive. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.
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