POLLUTANT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does pollutant mean? 

• POLLUTANT (noun)
  The noun POLLUTANT has 1 sense:

1. waste matter that contaminates the water or air or soil

  Familiarity information: POLLUTANT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POLLUTANT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Waste matter that contaminates the water or air or soil

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("pollutant" is a kind of...):

waste; waste material; waste matter; waste product (any materials unused and rejected as worthless or unwanted)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pollutant"):

DDT; dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (an insecticide that is also toxic to animals and humans; banned in the United States since 1972)

CFC; chlorofluorocarbon (a fluorocarbon with chlorine; formerly used as a refrigerant and as a propellant in aerosol cans)

halon (a compound in which the hydrogen atoms of a hydrocarbon have been replaced by bromine and other halogen atoms; very stable; used in fire extinguishers although it is thought to release bromine that depletes the ozone layer)

nitrogen oxide (any of several oxides of nitrogen formed by the action of nitric acid on oxidizable materials; present in car exhausts)

sulfur dioxide; sulphur dioxide (a colorless toxic gas (SO2) that occurs in the gases from volcanoes; used in many manufacturing processes and present in industrial emissions; causes acid rain)

Derivation:

pollute (make impure)

 Context examples 

The concentration of each pollutant in each tube was tracked over the next 11 days.

(Common Houseplant with Genetic Modification Can Remove Polluted Air, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

However, some pollutants can cause diseases that show up much later, such as respiratory diseases or cancer.

(Indoor Air Pollution, Environmental Protection Agency)

The system removed around 90 per cent of pollutants, including around 95 per cent of nitrogen, a fertiliser residue.

(Soil-based filter bricks clean up water for Moroccan farmers, SciDev.Net)

“Artificial light is an environmental pollutant that threatens nocturnal animals and affects plants and microorganisms,” the study said.

(Study: Earth’s Night Skies Getting Brighter, VOA)

But now a new study says the tiny plastic debris acts as a carrier for pollutants resistant to environmental degradation, adding to the risks to animal and human health.

(Microplastic pollution adds to oceans’ problems, scidev.net)

It is on the EPA's priority pollutant list.

(Anthracene, NCI Thesaurus)

Carcinogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) are ubiquitous environmental pollutants that are formed in the process of incomplete burning of organic material and can cause cancer in humans.

(Carcinogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon, NCI Thesaurus)

Exposure to inorganic carcinogenic Nickel Subsulfide, an atmospheric pollutant primarily generated by industries that manufacture lithium batteries, results in inflammation, hyperplasia, and fibrosis in the lungs and olfactory epithelium.

(Nickel Subsulfide, NCI Thesaurus)

It forms when pollutants from cars, factories, and other sources react chemically with sunlight.

(Ozone, Environmental Protection Agency)

An inactivating and detoxification pathway for a variety of exogenous and endogenous molecules, including drugs, pollutants, bilirubin, androgens, estrogens, mineralocorticoids, glucocorticoids, fatty acid derivatives, retinoids and bile acids.

(Glucuronidation Pathway, NCI Thesaurus)