pollute

CEFRB1

/pəˈluːt/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To make air, water, or land dirty and harmful.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    To corrupt or profane

Examples

  • We ought to do our best not to pollute our environment.

  • Some factories pollute the environment.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /pəˈljuːt/

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To make something harmful, especially by the addition of some unwanted product.

  2. To make something or somewhere less suitable for some activity, especially by the introduction of some unnatural factor.

  3. To violate sexually; to debauch; to dishonour.

More examples

In context

  • The factory polluted the river when it cleaned its tanks.

  • The lights from the stadium polluted the night sky, and we couldn't see the stars.

  • But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Companies that blank the environment with harmful chemicals should clean up their waste.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

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