conflate
Definitions
To combine two or more things into one.
把（两件或多件事物）合并为一。
To mistakenly treat two distinct things as if they were the same.
混淆，把不同的事物错误地等同起来。
Root Breakdown
Root-derivedcon- (together) + flāre (blow) = 'blow together.' The original sense was a metalworker's: blast air over the fire to fuse different metals into one mass. From that came the modern meaning — to merge two things, and especially to wrongly merge two distinct ideas into one.
Root flat still carries 4 more wordsWhy It Means This
The 'blowing' in conflate is now invisible, which makes it the least intuitive flat- word. Modern usage leans almost entirely on the 'wrongly merge' sense: to conflate correlation with causation, or to conflate a person's views with their party's, is to melt two separate things into one when you shouldn't.
Common Collocations
- 1.conflate two things把两件事合并
- 2.conflate A with B把 A 与 B 混为一谈
- 3.often conflated常被混淆
- 4.mistakenly conflate错误地等同
Example Sentences
- 1.
Critics often conflate the author with the narrator of her novels.
- 2.
We shouldn't conflate being busy with being productive.
- 3.
The report conflates two separate studies into a single misleading claim.