Meaning & use
affected
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Meanings
adjectivecomparabledisapproving
Behaving in an unnatural, exaggerated way that seems designed to impress.
Grammar: Can be more or most affected; often describes accent, manner, politeness, laugh, or style.
Patterns
- affected manner
- sound affected
- affected accent
- affected politeness
His sudden formal accent sounded affected to old friends.
The hostess used affected politeness while ignoring half the guests.
She laughed in an affected way whenever the director entered.
adjectivebefore a noun
Influenced, harmed, or changed by a particular thing.
Grammar: Often predicative with by: be affected by; also common before nouns like areas, families, and systems.
Patterns
- be affected by something
- affected areas
- badly affected
- affected families
Thousands of families were affected by the factory closure.
The storm badly affected coastal roads and power lines.
Aid reached the most affected villages within a week.
Word forms
| comparative | more affected |
|---|---|
| superlative | most affected |
Common combinations
- badly affected
- Small shops were badly affected by the rise in rent.
- affected areas
- Maps showed the most affected areas in red.
- affected manner
- Critics disliked the actor's affected manner in the opening scene.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pretentious
- Pretentious claims more importance or culture than is real; affected focuses on unnatural manner.
- insincere
- Insincere means not genuinely meant; affected behavior is often a performance rather than simple dishonesty.
- mannered
- Mannered suggests an over-stylized pattern; it can be neutral in art, while affected is usually disapproving.
- impacted
- Impacted can mean strongly affected, but it is heavier and common in business or formal damage reports.
Opposites
Word family
- affect verb
- To influence or produce a change; the source of the influenced sense.
- unaffected adjective
- Can mean sincere and natural, or not influenced by something.
- affectation noun
- An artificial manner or gesture meant to impress.
Commonly confused: affected or effective? affected or effected?
affected vs effective
Effective means successful in producing a result; affected means artificial or influenced.
affected vs effected
Effected means brought about, as in effected change, while affected means influenced by change.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses affected to mean artificial or impressed-seeming.
Choose one answer.
An apology that feels rehearsed matches the disapproving artificial sense. Flooding, policy influence, and computer files fit the influenced or changed sense, not artificial behavior.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “affected”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.