Affluence is a noun for the state of having plenty of money — not just getting by, but enough for nice houses, comfortable things, and a life that does not feel tight. Newspapers use it for a person, a family, a city, or even a whole country when most people have more than they need. It is a rather formal, essay-and-news word; at the dinner table people are more likely to say wealth or simply that someone is rich. It does not, by itself, praise or blame. It names plenty. Though actually, the tidy picture of affluence as “being a rich person” is tidier than real talk: you can live in affluence and still worry, and a place can be called affluent while some streets in it are not. The money meaning is also not the oldest one. The word came into English from Old French and Latin, and for a long time the idea was more like things flowing in; only from about the 1500s did English and French settle on wealth as the usual sense. You will meet the adjective affluent far more than this noun in everyday reading.