polluted 1 of 2

adjective

as in contaminated
containing foreign or lower-grade substances called in to clean up the polluted stream

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

polluted

2 of 2

verb

past tense of pollute
as in poisoned
to make unfit for use by the addition of something harmful or undesirable outmoded factories polluting the air

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of polluted
Adjective
Turner has pointed out that Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley, is among the most polluted places in America, while roughly a quarter of local families experience food insecurity. — Literary Hub, 10 Aug. 2026 And humans and our behaviors are one of the biggest reasons our river water becomes polluted. — Jaclyn Cosgrove, Los Angeles Times, 6 Aug. 2026 Historically, these communities have been displaced, or suffered from polluted air and water as a result—even long after the mines close. — Justin Worland, Time, 4 Aug. 2026 Kevin, now 67, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about two and a half years ago and attributes his diagnosis to his polluted three-month post in the Persian Gulf. — Wuft News, Miami Herald, 29 July 2026 Tens of thousands of Muscovites will find their deliveries canceled and the atmosphere heavily polluted. — David Hambling, Forbes.com, 23 July 2026 By late Thursday afternoon, Chicago had overtaken Detroit, Minneapolis and Toronto as the most polluted major city in the world, according to Swiss air quality company IQAir. — Finnegan Belleau, Chicago Tribune, 17 July 2026 Proliferation of automobiles and coal as an energy source combined with an absence of meaningful emission standards caused dangerously polluted air. — Rebecca Florsheim, STAT, 17 July 2026 The Environmental Protection Agency uses a measure called the Air Quality Index to assess how polluted the air is. — Ashley Mowreader, NBC news, 17 July 2026
Verb
Greenpeace Germany warned that oil has already polluted stretches of coastline and damaged the area's fragile ecosystem. — Stephen Sorace, FOXNews.com, 2 Aug. 2026 Stretches of coastline and the area’s sensitive marine ecosystem have been polluted and damaged. — ABC News, 1 Aug. 2026 Both lead to context getting polluted, eroding response quality at scale. — Chhaya Methani, Forbes.com, 28 July 2026 The same river that was savagely polluted by the mining industry, devastating the ancestral oasis of Quillagua. — Cristina Dorador, The Dial, 14 July 2026 But stars aren’t the only things that fail to show up when the sky is polluted with light; fireflies, those flashing, nostalgic symbols of summer, often skip the party too. — Evie Carrick, Travel + Leisure, 1 July 2026 Midland, Texas, is still cleaning up groundwater polluted by a leaking injection well more than two decades ago. — Nick Bowlin, ProPublica, 30 June 2026 As a result, many people living near Mavecure have gotten out of gold mining, which polluted the jungle rivers with mercury and sediment, to work as tour guides, operate restaurants and hostels, or sell arts and crafts. — John Otis, NPR, 30 May 2026 At the latter, four local farmers show The Athletic water courses polluted with crude oil. — Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 27 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for polluted
  1. contaminated
  2. poisoned
  3. diluted
  4. tainted
  5. dilute
  6. adulterated
  7. mixed
  8. impure
Adjective
  • Your veterinarian may also recommend a bath to remove contaminated feces from its fur.
    — Angela Haupt, Time, 12 Aug. 2026
  • Respiratory and neurological side effects can be symptoms in contaminated areas, which include headaches, tiredness, difficulty breathing and irritations of the eyes, nose and throat.
    — Alexiah Syrai Olsen, Sacbee.com, 10 Aug. 2026
Definition of contaminated
Verb
  • The types of crimes weren’t spelled out, but imagine that a President, say, poisoned his estranged spouse and concealed the crime until after leaving the White House.
    — Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2026
  • In addition to the 10 discovered last weekend, two trees were found poisoned in late July and four more in May, Raymore said.
    — Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times, 8 Aug. 2026
Definition of poisoned
Adjective
  • For mild nausea, massage a few drops of diluted peppermint oil directly on the stomach.
    — BestReviews, Chicago Tribune, 13 Aug. 2026
  • When leaders launch dozens of initiatives at once, accountability becomes diluted and teams struggle to distinguish the critical work from the merely urgent.
    — Basant Singh, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of diluted
Verb
  • But the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the murder convictions this May and ordered a retrial, saying Colleton County’s then-clerk tainted the first trial with what the defense said was prejudicial comments to the jury.
    — Devon M. Sayers, CNN Money, 14 Aug. 2026
  • The political violence that tainted the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction era clashes with traditional definitions of terrorism, which typically targets a power structure that such violence seeks to upend.
    — Jacob Ware, The Conversation, 31 July 2026
Definition of tainted
Adjective
  • Finally, the third recruits seaweed to gather minerals that are otherwise too dilute to chase.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 27 July 2026
  • Clean and disinfect your pruning shears between working on each plant by dipping them into a dilute 10% solution of chlorine bleach water or rubbing alcohol.
    — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 4 July 2026
Definition of dilute
Adjective
  • Navarro, who pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy in August, was sentenced Friday in Manhattan by federal Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil for being part of a conspiracy to distribute and administer adulterated and misbranded drugs for racehorses.
    — Stephen Edelson, The Courier-Journal, 18 Dec. 2021
Definition of adulterated
Adjective
  • Ampadu signed for Chelsea from Exeter City in 2017, joining at the age of 16, but made only 12 appearances and had mixed experiences during loan spells at Sheffield United, RB Leipzig, Venezia and Spezia.
    — Adam Crafton, New York Times, 18 Aug. 2026
  • Complex documents with tables, charts and mixed content need each content type scored separately, since a model can nail text while mangling a table.
    — Sriram Bhargav Madhav, Forbes.com, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of mixed
Adjective
  • Wise’s wistful songwriting is retained, but completely missing is his intentionally impure palette.
    — Billie Bugara, Pitchfork, 7 Mar. 2026
  • Kanto practitioners believe that women cannot participate because, according to Japan's Shinto religion, women's blood from menstruation and childbirth is considered impure for the purpose of religious rituals.
    — Anthony Kuhn, NPR, 3 Nov. 2025
Definition of impure

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Cite this Entry

“Polluted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/polluted. Accessed 18 Aug. 2026.

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Nglish: Translation of polluted for Spanish Speakers

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