Undesirable state of the natural environment being contaminated with harmful substances as a consequence of human activities.

Roget 945: vice; evil-doing, evil courses; wrongdoing; wickedness, viciousness etc. adj.; iniquity, peccability^†, demerit; sin, Adam^†; old Adam^†, offending Adam^†.    immorality, impropriety, indecorum, scandal, laxity, looseness of morals; enphagy^†, dophagy^†, exophagy^†; want of principle, want of ballast; obliquity, backsliding, infamy, demoralization, pravity^†, depravity, pollution; hardness of heart; brutality etc. (malevolence) 907; corruption etc. (debasement) 659; knavery etc. (improbity) 940^†; profligacy; flagrancy, atrocity; cannibalism; lesbianism, Sadism.    infirmity; weakness etc. adj.; weakness of the flesh, frailty, imperfection; error; weak side; foible; failing, failure; crying sin, besetting sin; defect, deficiency; cloven foot.    lowest dregs of vice, sink of iniquity, Alsatian den^†; gusto picaresco [It].    fault, crime; criminality etc. (guilt) 947.    sinner etc. 949.    [Resorts] brothel etc. 961; gambling house etc. 621; joint [Slang], opium den, shooting gallery, crack house.    ... show more

Roget 655: disease; illness, sickness etc. adj.; ailing &c.; all the ills that flesh is heir to" [Hamlet]; morbidity, morbosity^†; infirmity, ailment, indisposition; complaint, disorder, malady; distemper, distemperature^†.    visitation, attack, seizure, stroke, fit.    delicacy, loss of health, invalidation, cachexy^†; cachexia [Med.], atrophy, marasmus^†; indigestion, dyspepsia; decay etc. (deterioration) 659; decline, consumption, palsy, paralysis, prostration.    taint, pollution, infection, sepsis, septicity^†, infestation; epidemic, pandemic, endemic, epizootic; murrain, plague, pestilence, pox.    sore, ulcer, abscess, fester, boil; pimple, wen etc. (swelling) 250; carbuncle, gathering, imposthume^†, peccant humor, issue; rot, canker, cold sore, fever sore; cancer, carcinoma, leukemia, neoplastic disease, malignancy, tumor; caries, mortification, corruption, gangrene, sphacelus^†, sphacelation^†, leprosy; eruption, rash, breaking out.    fever, temperature, calenture^†; inflammation.    ague, angina pectoris [Lat.], appendicitis; Asiatic cholera^†, spasmodic cholera; biliary calculus, kidney stone, black death, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague; blennorrhagia^†, blennorrhoea^†; blood poisoning, bloodstroke^†, bloody flux, brash; breakbone fever^†, dengue fever, malarial fever, Q-fever; heart attack, cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy [Med.]; hardening of the arteries, arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis; bronchocele [Med.], canker rash, cardialgia [Med.], carditis [Med.], endocarditis [Med.]; cholera, asphyxia; chlorosis, chorea, cynanche^†, dartre [Fr.]; enanthem^†, enanthema^†; erysipelas; exanthem^†, exanthema; gallstone, goiter, gonorrhea, green sickness; grip, grippe, influenza, flu; hay fever, heartburn, heaves, rupture, hernia, hemorrhoids, piles, herpes, itch, king's evil, lockjaw; measles, mumps^†, polio; necrosis, pertussis, phthisis^†, pneumonia, psora^†, pyaemia^†, pyrosis [Med.], quinsy, rachitis^†, ringworm, rubeola, St.    Vitus's dance, scabies, scarlatina, scarlet fever, scrofula, seasickness, struma^†, syntexis^†, tetanus, tetter^†, tonsillitis, tonsilitis^†, tracheocele [Med.], trachoma, trismus [Med.], varicella [Med.], varicosis [Med.], variola [Med.], water qualm, whooping cough; yellow fever, yellow jack.    fatal disease etc. (hopeless) 859; dangerous illness, galloping consumption, churchyard cough; general breaking up, break up of the system.    [Disease of mind] idiocy etc. 499; insanity etc. 503.    martyr to disease; cripple; the halt the lame and the blind;" valetudinary^†, valetudinarian; invalid, patient, case; sickroom, sick-chamber.    [Science of disease] pathology, etiology, nosology^†.    [Veterinary] anthrax, bighead; blackleg, blackquarter^†; cattle plague, glanders^†, mange, scrapie, milk sickness; heartworm, feline leukemia, roundworms; quarter-evil, quarter-ill; rinderpest.    [disease-causing agents] virus, bacterium, bacteria.    [types of viruses] DNA virus; RNA virus.    [RNA viruses] rhinovirus; rhabdovirus; picornavirus.    [DNA viruses] herpesvirus; cytomegalovirus, CMV; human immunodefficiency virus, HIV.    ... show more

Dutch: milieuverontreiniging, milieuvervuiling, pollutie, verontreiniging, vervuiling
Polish: zanieczyszczenie środowiska

The state of being polluted.

synonyms: befoulment, defilement.

Roget 874: disrepute, discredit; ill repute, bad repute, bad name, bad odor, bad favor, ill name, ill odor, ill favor; disapprobation etc. 932; ingloriousness, derogation; abasement, debasement; abjectness etc. adj.; degradation, dedecoration^†; a long farewell to all my greatness [Henry VIII]; odium, obloquy, opprobrium, ignominy.    dishonor, disgrace; shame, humiliation; scandal, baseness, vileness^†; turpitude etc. (improbity) 940^†; infamy.    tarnish, taint, defilement, pollution.    stain, blot, spot, blur, stigma, brand, reproach, imputation, slur.    crying shame, burning shame; scandalum magnatum [Lat.], badge of infamy, blot in one's escutcheon; bend sinister, bar sinister; champain^†, point champain^†; byword of reproach; Ichabod.    argumentum ad verecundiam [Lat.]; sense of shame etc. 879.    ... show more

Dutch: bezoedeling
Polish: zanieczyszczenie

The act of contaminating or polluting; including (either intentionally or accidentally) unwanted substances or factors.

synonym: contamination.

Roget 659: deterioration, debasement; wane, ebb; recession etc. 287; retrogradation etc. 283^†; decrease etc. 36.    degeneracy, degeneration, degenerateness; degradation; depravation, depravement; devolution; depravity etc. 945; demoralization, retrogression; masochism.    impairment, inquination^†, injury, damage, loss, detriment, delaceration^†, outrage, havoc, inroad, ravage, scath^†; perversion, prostitution, vitiation, discoloration, oxidation, pollution, defoedation^†, poisoning, venenation^†, leaven, contamination, canker, corruption, adulteration, alloy.    decline, declension, declination; decadence, decadency^†; falling off etc. v.; caducity^†, decrepitude.    decay, dilapidation, ravages of time, wear and tear; corrosion, erosion; moldiness, rottenness; moth and rust, dry rot, blight, marasmus^†, atrophy, collapse; disorganization; delabrement etc. (destruction). 162; aphid, Aphis, plant louse, puceron^†; vinefretter^†, vinegrub^†.    wreck, mere wreck, honeycomb, magni nominis umbra [Lat.]; jade, plug, rackabones [U.S.], skate [U.S.]; tackey^†, tacky [U.S.].    ... show more

Dutch: verontreiniging, vervuiler
Polish: zanieczyszczanie