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pollutant

UK/pəˈl(j)uːtənt/US/pəˈl(j)uːtənt/
nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #15,145 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: pollutants

A pollutant is a substance that dirties air, water or soil. Measure the pollutant.

It is defined by being in the wrong place rather than by what it is, since nitrogen is a fertiliser in a field and a pollutant in a river. The most damaging pollutant in a city is usually the smallest particles.

Lynn Betts, photographer · Public domain

Definitions of pollutant

  1. 1nounpollutantA substance that dirties air, water or soil.B2+

    “One pollutant accounted for most of the harm to the river.”

pollutant is a substance.

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    pollūtum

  2. Middle English

    polluten

  3. English

    pollute

  4. English, today

    pollutant

Built from

  • pollūtus · Latin — no longer virgin", "unchaste
  • polluō · Latin — soil", "defile", "dishonor

From pollute + -ant. pollute comes from Middle English polluten, borrowed from Latin pollūtum, from pollūtus (“no longer virgin", "unchaste”), perfect passive participle of polluō (“soil", "defile", "dishonor”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Science & Space

Practise this word

pollutant in the wild

  • A pollutant or novel entity is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effect, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource.

    Pollutant

  • Some pollutants are biodegradable and therefore will not persist in the environment in a long term.

    Pollutant

  • National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS NAKS) are limits on atmospheric concentration of six pollutants that cause smog, acid rain, and other health hazards.

    National Ambient Air Quality Standards

  • The models also serve to assist in the design of effective control strategies to reduce emissions of harmful air pollutants.

    Atmospheric dispersion modeling

  • Measures of pollutant concentration are used to determine risk assessment in public health.

    Measures of pollutant concentration

1 / 3

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the polluō family

pollutionpollute

pollutant — used about once every 159,543 pages · #15,145 · point at the bar for the others