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tr.v. af·fect·ed, af·fect·ing, af·fects 1. To have an influence on or effect a change in: Inflation affects the buying power of the dollar. 2. To act on the emotions of; touch or move. See Synonyms at move. 3. To attack or infect, as a disease: Rheumatic fever can affect the heart. n. (ăfĕkt′) 1. Feeling or emotion, especially as manifested by facial expression or body language: "The soldiers seen on television had been carefully chosen for blandness of affect" (Norman Mailer). 2. Obsolete A disposition, feeling, or tendency. [Middle English affecten, from Latin afficere, affect-, to do to, act on : ad-, ad- + facere, to do; see dhē- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] Usage Note: Affect and effect are often confused because they sound alike and have related meanings. First, bear in mind that there are two words spelled affect. One means "to put on a false show of," as in She affected a British accent. The other affect, the one that is confused with effect, is both a noun and a verb. As a noun it is uncommon and means roughly "emotion." It is pronounced with stress on the first syllable rather than the second. Note that affect does not have a noun sense meaning "an influence that brings about a change." As a verb, affect is most commonly used in the sense of "to cause a change in:" the ways in which smoking affects health. The verb effect means "to bring about or execute": medical treatment designed to effect a cure. Its corresponding noun means "a result." Thus if someone affects something, there is likely to be an effect of some kind, and from this may arise some of the confusion. People who stop smoking will see beneficial health effects, but not beneficial health affects. The verbs produce important differences in meaning. The sentence These measures have been designed to effect savings implies that the measures will cause new savings to come about. Using affect in the very similar sentence These measures will affect savings implies that the measures will cause a change in savings that have already been realized. |
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