POLLUTED Synonyms: 92 Similar and Opposite Words

polluted 1 of 2

adjective

as in contaminated

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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

One of the singular features of Baotou, an industrial city of 2 million people in Inner Mongolia, is a 10-square-kilometer (4-square-mile) lake that is among the most polluted in the world. — Glenn Zorpette, IEEE Spectrum, 15 Oct. 2026 Lahn, who was endorsed early in his primary by political committee MAHA Action, has diverged from many of his Republican peers in directly linking polluted water and agrochemicals to Iowa’s cancer crisis. — ABC News, 14 Oct. 2026 Lahn, who was endorsed early in his primary by the political committee MAHA Action, has diverged from many of his Republican peers in directly linking polluted water and agrochemicals to Iowa's cancer crisis. — CBS News, 14 Oct. 2026 In April 2021, a tear in the liner of the site’s largest holding pond threatened to breach and flood surrounding homes with a wall of polluted water up to 20 feet high. — Ryan Ballogg, Miami Herald, 28 Sep. 2026 When it was established, the community was part of an industrial zone, surrounded by railroad yards, warehouses, and a polluted working waterway. — Tori Latham, Robb Report, 28 Sep. 2026 Ambulances won’t come to the neighborhood anymore, and the city doesn’t respond to complaints about the polluted water for days, maybe weeks. — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 24 Sep. 2026 This is where studying microbes that already live in polluted environments gives us an advantage. — Catherine Armbruster, The Conversation, 17 Sep. 2026 In Wilmington, officials are looking into why a couple of polluted tidal creeks in the area are struggling to recover despite restoration efforts. — Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA Today, 21 Aug. 2026

Verb

In the northern part of the district, the waterfront is polluted by ships. — Jemma Stephenson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Sep. 2026 Our state has thousands of sites already polluted with toxic chemicals and other pollutants, and those projects affect air quality, safe drinking water and community health for millions of Californians. — Shannon Olivieri Hovis, Mercury News, 18 Aug. 2026 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

Recent Examples of Synonyms for polluted

Adjective

To break the chains of infections stemming from contaminated needles, Soqo has proposed supplying thousands of sterile needles and syringes to communities of methamphetamine users.

— David Cox, NPR, 26 Sep. 2026
After our investigation, my colleagues and I published a paper describing the anthrax cases from contaminated mail.

— Daniel Jernigan, STAT, 26 Sep. 2026

Definition of contaminated

Verb

The video cuts to Swift living out exactly what Johnson’s been living through, revealing that Farrell poisoned Swift, leading to her death.

— Nicole Fell, HollywoodReporter, 27 Sep. 2026
In her other case, Hogan has been accused of trying to falsify a paternity test in a custody battle with her ex-fiancé, who was not the same man who was allegedly poisoned.

— Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 25 Sep. 2026

Definition of poisoned

Adjective

In the spring, the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act, a landmark civil rights law, making way for Republican states to redraw their congressional maps and igniting fears of diluted Black representation.

— New York Times, New York Times, 29 Sep. 2026
Use a dry microfiber cloth for routine cleaning, and diluted dish soap or white vinegar to remove more stubborn, sticky film.

— Jolie Kerr, Better Homes & Gardens, 23 Sep. 2026

Definition of diluted

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

In the cursed days of auto-sync, pre-mixed sets, and the celebrity spinner, few have done as much to defend the noble art of the DJ as Felix Manuel, aka Djrum, a selector who combines galactically expansive taste with equally vast technical skill.

— Ben Cardew, Pitchfork, 17 Oct. 2026
Reaction was mixed, with one organizer raising the importance of Black fraternities and sororities on campus.

— Brittany Shammas, CNN Money, 17 Oct. 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

Browse Nearby Words

pollute

polluted

pollutes

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Polluted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/polluted. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of polluted

adjective

verb

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

fervid

Popular in Grammar & Usage

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Popular in Wordplay

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

Did 'orange' the fruit or the color come first?

Popular

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

Games & Quizzes