effluvium
ef·flu·vi·um/ɪˈfluːvi.əm/noun
effluvium is a noun meaning “A gaseous or vaporous emission, especially a foul-smelling one” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled E-F-F-L-U-V-I-U-M and has 4 syllables (ef·flu·vi·um), and it appears about once in every 31 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of effluvium is effluvia or effluviums.
What does effluvium mean?
noun
- 1
A gaseous or vaporous emission, especially a foul-smelling one.
- 2
A condition causing the shedding of hair.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce effluvium?
- /ɪˈfluːvi.əm/
Effluvium has 4 syllables, split ef·flu·vi·um in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-effluvium.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of effluvium
- effluvia plural
- effluviums plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is effluvium?
Effluvium appears about once in every 31 million words in written English, the 169,822nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Effluvium in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense gaseous or vaporous emission:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | effluvium |
| German | Effluvium |
| Spanish | efluvio |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does effluvium come from?
From Latin effluvium (“an outlet”), from effluō (“flow out or away”), from ex (“out of, from”) + fluō (“flow”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).