What does pollute mean?
Pollute means to make something impure, unsafe, or otherwise spoiled by introducing contamination. Its most common modern use is environmental: factories, vehicles, chemicals, and waste can pollute air, water, soil, and food. The word may also have a broader figurative sense, as when misleading information pollutes public discussion or corruption is said to pollute an institution. This usage reflects the word’s long history of connecting physical impurity with moral and spiritual defilement. Pollute is stronger and more consequential than words such as dirty, because it usually implies the introduction of something harmful or the violation of a standard that matters. As a transitive verb, it normally takes a direct object: a substance or activity may pollute a river, the air, or the environment. Related forms include pollution, pollutant, polluter, polluted, and polluting. Although pollution is now closely associated with environmental science, the word’s core idea has always been the contamination or corruption of something that should remain pure or intact.
verbTo make something impure, unsafe, or unfit for use by introducing contaminating or harmful substances. By extension, it means to spoil or corrupt something that should be clear, pure, or trustworthy.
- To introduce harmful or contaminating substances into air, water, soil, food, or another environment, making it impure or unsafe.
- To spoil, corrupt, or introduce disorder into something regarded as pure, clear, honest, or morally sound.
"Factories that discharge untreated waste can pollute rivers and groundwater."
"Factories that discharge untreated waste can pollute rivers and groundwater."
"False claims can pollute public discussion and obscure the facts."
Pollute comes from the Latin polluere, meaning “to make dirty” or “defile”—a blunt ancestor for a word now central to environmental language.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does pollute come from?
Pollute entered English from Old French polluer, which came from Latin pollutare, derived from polluere, “to make dirty, defile, or pollute.” From its earliest English uses, the word could describe both material contamination and moral or religious defilement. The later environmental sense developed by specializing the older idea of impurity.
Related word forms
How pollute is actually used
Pollute is normally transitive and carries a strongly negative connotation. Its environmental use is especially common, while moral and figurative uses are generally more formal.