INFLECTION • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Inflection

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/ɪnflˈɛkʃən/ Listen

noun

Inflection n. (Written also inflecxion)

The act of inflecting, or the state of being inflected.

A bend; a fold; a curve; a turn; a twist.

A slide, modulation, or accent of the voice; as, the rising and the falling inflection.

(Gram.) The variation or change which words undergo to mark case, gender, number, comparison, tense, person, mood, voice, etc.

(Mus.)

(a)

Any change or modification in the pitch or tone of the voice.

(b)

A departure from the monotone, or reciting note, in chanting.

(Opt.) Same as Diffraction.

Point of inflection (Geom.), the point on opposite sides of which a curve bends in contrary ways.

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Etymology of 'Inflection'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Inflection" Quotes from Famous Books

... so far as it may afford them a larger volume or a wider scope for what has in latterday colloquial phrase been called "graft." These personages are, of course, not to be spoken of with disrespect or with the slightest inflection of discourtesy. They are all honorable men. Indeed they afford the conventional pattern of human dignity and meritorious achievement, and the "Fountain of Honor" is found among them. The point of the argument is only that their material or other self-regarding interests are of ...

— An Inquiry Into The Nature Of Peace And The Terms Of Its Perpetuation • Thorstein Veblen

... west of Central Avenue, which was so literally the dividing line that if a Benhamite were referred to as living on that street the conventional inquiry would be "On which side?" And if the answer were "On the east," the inquirer would be apt to say "Oh!" with a cold inflection which suggested a ban. No Benhamite has ever been able to explain precisely why it should be more creditable to live on one side of the same street than on the other, but I have been told by clever women, who were good Americans besides, that this ...

— Unleavened Bread • Robert Grant

... speech with so disagreeable an inflection that Arved was astonished. He looked around ...

— Visionaries • James Huneker

... he could muster, and releasing his passive prisoner, pushed her gently into the safe-keeping of the old cniht. Yet he was not so obtuse as to step back, as though the incident were closed; he read the King's inflection more correctly than that. Holding himself somewhat stiff in the tenseness of his feelings, he stood his ...

— The Ward of King Canute • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz

... for the lovely invitation, and please let me put it down to my credit account? I would like a refund," and she laughed her irresistible explosive outburst, in which the whole party joined, whether willingly or from acute inflection. ...

— The Girl Scout Pioneers - or Winning the First B. C. • Lillian C Garis

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