Pollutant
//pəˈl(j)uːtənt// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A foreign substance that makes something dirty, or impure, especially waste from human activities.
"Acid rain forms when water in the atmosphere condenses on particles containing acid-forming pollutants, such as sulfate produced by the burning of fossil fuels and nitrogen oxides from automobile exhausts."
- 2 waste matter that contaminates the water or air or soil wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"We can conclude that this phenomenon is not related to either pollutant."
Etymology
From pollute + -ant.
Related phrases
More for "pollutant"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.