🇪🇸Spanish Source WordCode: ES

Contaminar

Pronunciation / Transliteration: kon.ta.miˈnaɾ

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Pollute/pəˈluːt/
verbCEFR B2 (Upper)Top #1500 frequency
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🇪🇸 Example Sentence in Spanish:

"Las fábricas contaminan el agua."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As verb
  1. 1

    To make (something) dirty or unclean, especially by introducing harmful substances.

    "The factory's waste was found to pollute the nearby river."
  2. 2

    To contaminate or make unfit for use by introducing undesirable elements.

    "Excessive plastic waste can pollute the oceans and harm marine life."

Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

The word 'pollute' originates from the Latin 'polluere', which means 'to defile or make unclean'. It evolved through Middle English, where it was used to describe the act of making something dirty or impure, particularly in relation to the environment and moral standards.

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