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pollution. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
pollution, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
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English
Etymology
From Middle English pollucion, from Anglo-Norman pollutiun, Middle French pollution, pollucion, and their source, post-classical Latin pollūtiō (“defilement, desecration; nocturnal emission”) (4th century), from the participial stem of polluō (“to soil, defile, contaminate”), from por- (“before”) + -luō (“to smear”), related to lutum (“mud”) and luēs (“filth”). Compare Ancient Greek λῦμα (lûma, “filth, dirt, disgrace”) and λῦμαξ (lûmax, “rubbish, refuse”), Old Irish loth (“mud, dirt”), Lithuanian lutynas (“pool, puddle”).
Pronunciation
Noun
pollution (countable and uncountable, plural pollutions)
- Physical contamination, now especially the contamination of the environment by harmful substances, or by disruptive levels of noise, light etc.
Pollution levels are almost always higher in cities rather than the countryside, what with the cars, industry and so on.
2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the […] hazards of gasoline cars: air and water pollution, noise and noxiousness, constant coughing and the undeniable rise in cancers caused by smoke exhaust particulates.
2018 July 13, Matthew Taylor, The Guardian:Schools across the country are moving to ban the school run amid growing concern about the devastating impact of air pollution on young people’s health.
2023 August 9, “Network News: Network rail under fire for spending thousands of pounds on flights”, in RAIL, number 989, page 15:"Flying only looks like a bargain because the cost of pollution is so cheap."
- Something that pollutes; a pollutant.
- (now rare) The desecration of something holy or sacred; defilement, profanation.
1667, John Milton, “Book XII”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:Men who attend the Altar, and should most / Endevor Peace: thir strife pollution brings / Upon the Temple it self […].
- (now archaic) The ejaculation of semen outside of sexual intercourse, especially a nocturnal emission.
1839, Robley Dunglison, Medical Lexicon, Blanchard, page 492:When occasioned by a voluntary act it is called, simply, Pollution or Masturbation (q.v.); when excited, during sleep, by lascivious dreams, it takes the name Noctur'nal pollution, Exoneiro'sis, Oneirog'mos, Oneirog'onos, Gonorrhœ'a dormien'tium, G. oneirog'onos, G. Vera, G. libidino'sa, Proflu'vium Sem'inis, Spermatorrhœ'a, Paronir'ia salax, Night pollution.
1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, volume 1:According to Billuart and other theologians, pollution in sleep is not sin, unless voluntarily caused; if, however, it begins in sleep, and is completed in the half-waking state, with a sense of pleasure, it is a venial sin.
- Moral or spiritual corruption; impurity, degradation, defilement.
1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: for T Egerton, , →OCLC:She condescended to wait on them at Pemberley, in spite of that pollution which its woods had received.
Synonyms
Antonyms
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Translations
archaic: emission of semen at other times than in sexual intercourse
archaic: defilement, corruption
the contamination of the environment by harmful substances
- Afrikaans: omgewingsbesoedeling (af)
- Albanian: ndotje (sq) f
- Arabic: تَلْوِيث m (talwīṯ), تَلَوُّث m (talawwuṯ)
- Armenian: աղտոտում (hy) (aġtotum)
- Azerbaijani: kirlənmə, çirklənmə
- Belarusian: забру́джванне n (zabrúdžvannje), забрудне́нне n (zabrudnjénnje)
- Bengali: দূষণ (bn) (duśon)
- Breton: saotradur m
- Bulgarian: замърся́ване (bg) n (zamǎrsjávane)
- Burmese: ညစ်ညမ်းမှု (nyacnyam:hmu.)
- Catalan: contaminació (ca) f, pol·lució f
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: 污染 (wu1 jim5)
- Mandarin: 污染 (zh) (wūrǎn)
- Czech: znečištění n
- Danish: forurening (da) c
- Dutch: vervuiling (nl) f, milieuverontreiniging (nl) f, pollutie (nl) f, milieuvervuiling (nl) f
- Esperanto: poluado
- Estonian: reostus, saaste
- Finnish: saastuminen (fi) (state), saastuttaminen (fi) (act)
- French: pollution (fr) f
- Galician: contaminación (gl) f
- Georgian: დაბინძურება (dabinʒureba)
- German: Verunreinigung (de) f, Verschmutzung (de) f, Umweltverschmutzung (de) f, Pollution f
- Gothic: 𐌱𐌹𐍃𐌰𐌿𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 f (bisauleins)
- Greek: μόλυνση (el) f (mólynsi)
- Hebrew: זיהום \ זִהוּם (he) (zihúm)
- Hindi: प्रदूषण (hi) m (pradūṣaṇ), कालुष्य (hi) m (kāluṣya)
- Hungarian: környezetszennyezés (hu), szennyezés (hu) (the general term, optionally prefixed with light, noise, etc.)
- Icelandic: mengun (is) f
- Indonesian: pencemaran (id), polusi (id)
- Inuktitut: ᐃᑖᖏᔭᖅᑐᖅ (itaangiyaqtoq)
- Italian: inquinamento (it) m
- Japanese: 汚染 (ja) (おせん, osen)
- Kazakh: ластау (lastau)
- Khmer: (please verify) ការបំពុល (kaa bɑmpul)
- Korean: 오염(汚染) (ko) (oyeom)
- Kyrgyz: кирдөө (ky) (kirdöö)
- Lao: ມົນລະພິດ (lo) (mon la phit)
- Latin: contaminatio f
- Latvian: piesārņojums m
- Lithuanian: tarša f
- Macedonian: загадување n (zagaduvanje)
- Malay: pencemaran (ms)
- Malayalam: മലിനീകരണം (ml) (malinīkaraṇaṁ)
- Mongolian:
- Cyrillic: бохирдол (mn) (boxirdol)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: forurensing m
- Persian: آلودگی (fa) (âludegi)
- Polish: zanieczyszczenie (pl) n
- Portuguese: poluição (pt) f
- Romanian: poluare (ro) f
- Russian: загрязне́ние (ru) n (zagrjaznénije)
- Sanskrit: प्रदूषण (sa) (pradūṣaṇa)
- Scottish Gaelic: truailleadh m
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: загађење n
- Roman: zagađenje n
- Slovak: znečistenie n
- Slovene: onesnaženje n
- Spanish: polución (es) f, contaminación (es) f
- Swahili: uchafuzi (sw)
- Swedish: miljöförstöring (sv) c, förorening (sv) c
- Tajik: ифлоскунӣ (tg) (ifloskunī)
- Telugu: కాలుష్యం (te) (kāluṣyaṁ)
- Thai: มลภาวะ (mon-lá-paa-wá), มลพิษ (th) (mon-lá-pít)
- Turkish: kirlilik (tr), kirlenme (tr), kirletme (tr)
- Ukrainian: забру́днення n (zabrúdnennja)
- Urdu: آلودگی (ur) f (ālūdagī)
- Vietnamese: sự ô nhiễm (vi)
- Welsh: llygredd (cy) m
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something that pollutes; pollutant
Translations to be checked
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin pollūtiōnem. By surface analysis, polluer + -tion.
Pronunciation
Noun
pollution f (plural pollutions)
- pollution
- Synonyms: profanation, souillure
- pollution nocturne ― wet dream (literally, “nocturnal pollution”)
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading