Definition of "affect" []

• To have an influence on or effect a change in: Inflation affects the buying power of the dollar. (verb-transitive)
• To act on the emotions of; touch or move. (verb-transitive)
• To attack or infect, as a disease: Rheumatic fever can affect the heart. (verb-transitive)
• 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). (noun)
• Obsolete A disposition, feeling, or tendency. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Do you think of yourself as a Korean-American writer, and does this acceptance or rejection of the label affect how you write and market your work?"
• "During our initial job hunting stages, the post-dot com recession was already in affect, and shortly after graduation, 9-11 really through a wrench into our plans."
• "Bob Woodward's affect is that of a human tape recorder."