conflate

verb

con·flate kən-ˈflāt

conflated; conflating; conflates

Synonyms of conflate next

transitive verb

: to bring together : blend

Even more often, outsiders conflate the couple, and credit them with each other's characteristics.—

Alison Lurie

This unsettling book—conflating journalism, personal reportage, sociology and philosophical inquiry …—

Rosemary Mahoney

: confuse

Given its name, St. Thomas in Houston has on occasion been conflated with St. Thomas in Minnesota …—

David Barron

: to combine (things, such as two versions of a text) into a composite whole

For there are two substantive texts, the quarto published in 1597 and the folio in 1623. Modern editions usually conflate the pair to produce what the editor judges to be the best and most plausible hybrid.—

Bill Overton

Did you know?

We’re not just blowing hot air when we tell you that conflate can actually be traced back to the same roots as the English verb blow. Conflate comes from conflatus, a form of the Latin verb conflare (“to blow together, to fuse”), which was formed by combining the prefix com-, meaning “with” or “together,” with the Latin verb flare, meaning “to blow.” Blow’s ancestor, the Old English word blāwan, shares an ancestor with flare. When two or more things are conflated, they are figuratively “blown together” either by someone’s confusion or ingenuity. Other descendants of flare in English include flavor, inflate, and, well, flatulent.

Examples of conflate in a Sentence

be careful not to conflate gossip with real news the movie conflates documentary footage and dramatized reenactments so seamlessly and ingeniously that viewers may not know what is real and what is not

Recent Examples on the Web

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Worse, as some have pointed out, the current system conflates our roles as citizens and consumers. —

Penny Abeywardena, Forbes, 3 Nov. 2024 Consumers’ ability and willingness to spend are not the same but are often conflated. —

Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2024 Quint warns that in efforts to apply race and ethnicity data, researchers and policymakers should be careful not to conflate a person’s health with these factors alone. —

Jyoti Madhusoodanan, Scientific American, 15 Oct. 2024 Trump and his allies appear to be conflating two different funds. —

NBC News, 4 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for conflate