pollution
- 1The dirtying of air, water, or land by harmful substances, or by too much noise or light.
Like dumping trash and oily water into a clean pond until nothing can live there.
Factories along the river have caused serious pollution in the water.
City officials introduced new rules to cut air pollution.
Similarcontamination
Note
- 2A substance that makes air, water, or land dirty or harmful.
Like a drop of ink that spreads through a glass of water and spoils it.
The runoff carried farm pollution straight into the stream.
Wind spread the factory's pollution across the whole valley.
Similarcontamination
- 3A loss of goodness in the mind or spirit that leaves a person morally unclean.
Like mud staining a clean white cloth, but inside a person.
The preacher warned that greed leads to the pollution of the soul.
She felt that cruelty brought a kind of pollution into her heart.
Similarcorruption, defilement, taint, degradation
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Less common meanings
- 4The act of treating a holy thing in a way that makes it unclean or shows no respect.
Like tracking mud across a clean, special room that everyone keeps holy.
The soldiers' acts were a terrible pollution of the holy shrine.
[T]he most gallant knights that ever wielded sword wasted their lives away in a struggle to seize it and hold it sacred from infidel pollution.
1869, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Innocents AbroadHere, pollution means making something holy unclean or disrespected.Note
- 5The release of semen from the body at a time other than sex, especially during sleep.
The young monk confessed his nightly pollution to the abbot with great shame.
He woke troubled by a pollution that left him ashamed.
Note
Practice
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Origin
From Latin polluō, meaning "to soil, defile, or contaminate," which came into English through French and Middle English.