Make Your Point: AFFLATUS

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pronounce AFFLATUS:

uh FLAY duss

connect this word to others:

Afflatus is a lovely, mystical word, meaning "a bit of divine inspiration, a piece of poetic or creative insight."

But it still sounds rude to me. I can't help but laugh and think of flatulence, because both words trace back to the Latin flare, "to blow, or to puff," along with the puffy words inflate, deflate, and souffle.

And c__flate, a word we've explored before that means "to blur things together, to accidentally mistake one thing for another" (and most literally, "to blow together"), as in "I keep c__flating Keira Knightley with Natalie Portman." Can you recall it?

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

"Afflatus" has Latin bits that literally mean "a blowing upon, or a breathing upon," and we've used it since the 1600s in English. Imagine some god or mystical spirit gently blowing or breathing thoughts or ideas into your heart, and that's what an afflatus is.

In other words, an afflatus is an idea or urge, usually creative, that seems to enter someone's mind magically.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Noun, usually the countable kind: "the afflatus," "an afflatus," "that divine afflatus."

Other forms:

None are common. The plural is probably "afflatuses," but we only use the singular.

how to use it:

When you need a loftier, more attention-grabbing word than "inspiration," pick "afflatus." While both "inspiration" (literally "a blowing in") and "afflatus" imply that ideas float into the human spirit on a puff of mysticism, "afflatus" is much rarer than "inspiration."

You might talk about some writer's afflatus, or some artist's afflatus, or some visionary thinker's afflatus.

More specifically, you might say that an afflatus inspires, grips, compels, comes upon, or leaves someone. Or say that someone creates something by an afflatus, or receives some idea or creation through an afflatus.

And if you want to say that the afflatus is given by God or some other magical being, call it a "divine afflatus." Many writers do.

examples:

"Stories simmered in my brain, demanding to be writ; but I let them simmer, knowing that the longer the divine afflatus was bottled up the better it would be.''
— Louisa May Alcott, Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals, 1898

"'I've tried [writing poetry],' admitted Bridge; 'but there always seems to be something lacking in my stuff—it don't get under your belt—the divine afflatus is not there. I may start out all right, but I always end up where I didn't expect to go, and where nobody wants to be."
— Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mucker, 1914

has this page helped you understand "afflatus"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

study it:

Explain the meaning of "afflatus" without saying "creative notion" or "divine inspiration."

try it out:

If you've ever personally experienced an idea or a creative urge that came into your mind all of a sudden, as if from outside of yourself, then talk about this afflatus. Would you say it was truly given to you by some magic means, or did it just feel as if magic were involved?

If not, talk about the closest time you've ever come to receiving an afflatus.

I haven't experienced it myself; the only times I've felt like a channel opened in my brain have been in moments of déjà vu. In fact, in Catch-22, the chaplain refers to his experience of déjà vu as an afflatus: "For a few precarious seconds, the chaplain tingled with a weird, occult sensation of having experienced the identical situation before in some prior time or existence. He endeavored to trap and nourish the impression in order to predict, and perhaps even control, what incident would occur next, but the afflatus melted away unproductively, as he had known beforehand it would. Déjà vu."

I can give a secondhand example, though. When my sister and I were little, and we were in the process of moving to an apartment, our mom, very stressed out, heard the voice of God in her mind saying "There will be no tears there." According to Mom's recollection, the afflatus was accurate. None of us ever cried in that apartment.

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Coaxed into a Haiku!"

I'll give you the basics of a news story, and you boil the story down into a haiku. You can check out some examples here.

Feel free to take full creative license, omitting or warping the facts, adding dialogue, using slang, cursing, and/or burying the lede. Just do your best to fit the story into a three-line poem of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, respectively.

Try this one today...

"A polarizing Harvard astronomer known for splashy theories about alien visits has been tapped by the White House to lead a team of outside scientists to study the national security risks posed by UFOs. Avi Loeb, a cosmologist who studied black holes and served as head of Harvard's astronomy department until 2020, was recently appointed to helm a new scientific advisory council tasked with investigating the origins of mysterious orbs and other objects reported by military personnel in recent years."
— Collin Binkley, Associated Press, 1 July 2026

To see one possible haiku, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. The opposite of an AFFLATUS could be

A. a HARD PASS: an instant, even gleeful refusal.
B. a DRY WELL: a spiritual or intellectual emptiness.
C. a ROCKY ROAD: a journey or experience filled with difficulty.

2. A reviewer for the Washington Post described an ultra-hip, ultra-hyped novel: "So one picks up this novel ready to be transformed by the afflatus of its hipnicity." With the word "afflatus," he suggests that the novel is both _____.

A. trendy and frivolous
B. inspired and divine
C. hypnotic and unhinged

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
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How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > AFFLATUS

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