pollute
/pəˈluːt/verb, adjective
pollute is spelled P-O-L-L-U-T-E. The wrong spelling people search most is polute: about 70 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Pollute is a verb meaning “To make something harmful, especially by the addition of some unwanted product”.
How many letters and syllables are in pollute?
| Letters | 7: P-O-L-L-U-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 34,504th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, polute, about 70 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell pollute?
Pollute is spelled P-O-L-L-U-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for pollute in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is pollute?
Pollute appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,504th 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).
How do you pronounce pollute?
- /pəˈluːt/
- /pəˈljuːt/
Pollute has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-pollute.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of pollute
- pollutes present, singular, he/she/it
- polluting participle, present
- polluted participle, past
- more pollute comparative
- most pollute superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pollute mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To make something harmful, especially by the addition of some unwanted product.
The factory polluted the river when it cleaned its tanks.
- 2
To make something or somewhere less suitable for some activity, especially by the introduction of some unnatural factor.
The lights from the stadium polluted the night sky, and we couldn't see the stars.
- 3
To corrupt or profane
But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.
- 4
To violate sexually; to debauch; to dishonour.
- 5
slangto flatulate.
adjective
- 1
rarePolluted; defiled.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pollute in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | polluer , pollué |
| German | verschmutzen |
| Portuguese | contaminar, poluir , poluído , sujar |
| Spanish | contaminar, polucionar |
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 pollute come from?
From Middle English polluten, borrowed from Latin pollūtum, from pollūtus (“no longer virgin", "unchaste”), perfect passive participle of polluō (“soil", "defile", "dishonor”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).