pollution
//pəˈljuːʃən//
Forms
- Plural
- pollutions
Definitions
1.Physical contamination, now especially the contamination of the environment by harmful substances, or by disruptive levels of noise, light etc.
- "Flying only looks like a bargain because the cost of pollution is so cheap."
- Pollution now kills three times as many people worldwide as Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined.
- Pollution levels are almost always higher in cities rather than the countryside, what with the cars, industry and so on.
2.Something that pollutes; a pollutant.
3.Moral or spiritual corruption; impurity, degradation, defilement.
- She condescended to wait on them at Pemberley, in spite of that pollution which its woods had received.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3676
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English pollucioun, pollucion (“desecration, impurity”), 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”).