conflation

noun

con·​fla·​tion kən-ˈflā-shən 

plural conflations

: the action or result of conflating:

a(1)

: blend, fusion

What needs to be highlighted is the power that the state wields through conflations of people and place, and policies and programs.

—Thomas Klak

(2)

: confusion

The conflation of lie and lay is an old problem and, admittedly, an understandable one.

—Cullen Murphy

Clearly the dominant American culture confuses us Mennonites with the Amish, who in fact began as an insurgent faction rebelling from the Mennonites. America's conflation is reasonable, since the Mennonites and the Amish have historically overlapped in many lifestyle choices.

—Rhoda Janzen

b

: a composite reading or text

But this book is not simply a conflation of old dispatches from one of the world's forgotten trouble spots.

—William Boyd

Synonyms

• admixture
• alloy
• amalgam
• amalgamation
• blend
• cocktail
• combination
• composite
• compound
• emulsion
• fusion
• intermixture
• meld
• mix
• mixture
• synthesis

Examples of conflation in a Sentence

the word “robustious” is probably a conflation of “robust” and “boisterous”

Recent Examples on the Web

Of course, that required a certain amount of reductive storytelling — the compression of time, the conflation of characters, an oversimplification of ideas — but every movie must fight its way to life. —New York Times, 15 Feb. 2024

Maybe your hostility stems from your conflation of the camera with the maternal gaze, the ever-present eye that threatens to obliterate your own point of view. —Meghan O'Gieblyn, WIRED, 25 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1625, in the meaning defined above