inflation

/ɪnˈfleɪʃən/

6 senses across 1 part of speech

noun

An act, instance of, or state of expansion or increase in size, especially by injection of a gas.

Example “The inflation of the balloon took five hours.”
An increase in the general level of prices or in the cost of living.
A decline in the value of money.
An increase in the quantity of money, leading to a devaluation of existing money.
Undue expansion or increase, as of academic grades.
An extremely rapid expansion of the universe, theorised to have occurred very shortly after the big bang.