pollution
Physical contamination, now especially the contamination of the environment by harmful substances, or by disruptive levels of noise, light etc.
Example
“Pollution levels are almost always higher in cities rather than the countryside, what with the cars, industry and so on.”
Other meanings
Something that pollutes; a pollutant.
Moral or spiritual corruption; impurity, degradation, defilement.
Related words
- agropollution
- biopollution
- hydropollution
- pollutician
- pollutional
- pollutionary
- underpollution
- air pollution
- pollution permit system
- noise pollution
- antipollution
- water pollution
Example sentences
Word history
From Latin "pollūtiō" (defilement, desecration; nocturnal emission).
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “pollution” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.