pollution
/pəˈljuːʃən/
"pollution" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pollution” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,153 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,153
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Physical contamination, now especially the contamination of the environment by harmful substances, or by disruptive levels of noise, light etc.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pollution |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pəˈljuːʃən/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #5,153 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pollution” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pollution is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pəˈljuːʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,153 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for pollution, with forms such as "opllution", "plolution", and "polltuion". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "polluting", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English pollucioun, pollucion (“desecration, impurity”), from Anglo-Norman pollutiun, Middle French pollution, pollucion, and their source, post-classical Latin pollūtiō (“defilement, desecration; nocturnal emission”) (4th century), from the par… The correct English form is pollution, spelled P-O-L-L-U-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1Physical contamination, now especially the contamination of the environment by harmful substances, or by disruptive levels of noise, light etc.
- 2Something that pollutes; a pollutant.
- 3The desecration of something holy or sacred; defilement, profanation.
- 4The ejaculation of semen outside of sexual intercourse, especially a nocturnal emission.
- 5Moral or spiritual corruption; impurity, degradation, defilement.
Etymology
From Middle English pollucioun, pollucion (“desecration, impurity”), from Anglo-Norman pollutiun, Middle French pollution, pollucion, and their source, post-classical Latin pollūtiō (“defilement, desecration; nocturnal emission”) (4th century), from the participial stem of polluō (“to soil, defile, contaminate”), from por- (“before”) + -luō (“to smear”), related to lutum (“mud”) and luēs (“filth”). Compare Ancient Greek λῦμα (lûma, “filth, dirt, disgrace”) and λῦμαξ (lûmax, “rubbish, refuse”), Old Irish loth (“mud, dirt”), Lithuanian lutynas (“pool, puddle”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: opllution,plolution,polltuion,polluiton,pollusion,pollutino,pollutionn,pollutoin,polluttion,polultion,polution,ppollution
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pollution - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “pollution”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-O-L-L-U-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pəˈljuːʃən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “polluting” - see the side-by-side comparison. pollution vs polluting
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.