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# pollute

«pollute» in Mova's school dictionary: **to make air, water or land dirty and harmful by adding…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (pollute, pollutes, polluted, polluting)

### meaning for a pupil

To pollute is to make air, water or land dirty and harmful by adding waste, smoke or chemicals. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pollute/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

Used in science and geography lessons about the environment: factories, cars and litter pollute; we can reduce pollution by recycling, walking and cycling. Often passive: "The river is polluted."

### examples

- Cars pollute the air with fumes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pollute/#x1)
- Do not pollute the river with rubbish. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pollute/#x2)
- Plastic bags pollute the ocean. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pollute/#x3)
- The factory was fined for polluting the lake. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pollute/#x4)
- Polluted water can make animals ill. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pollute/#x5)
- How can we pollute less? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pollute/#x6)
- Smoke from fires pollutes the air. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pollute/#x7)

### note

Noun: pollution; person or thing: polluter; adjective: polluted. Double l, one t. The opposite idea: clean up.

### In the corpora

- [Burning coal and oil also pollutes the air with soot and gases that cause millions of early deaths each year.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/59-coal-oil-and-gas/15/)
- [Whether rich countries that polluted more should pay to help poorer countries is a disputed question.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/47-the-environment/13/)
- [Burning fossil fuels pollutes the air and adds carbon dioxide, which warms the Earth's climate.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/47-natural-resources/11/)
- [Smoke from vehicles, factories and burning rubbish pollutes the air.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/57-environment/10/)
- [Because their skin is thin, frogs are easily harmed by polluted water.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/74-fish-frogs-reptiles/15/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «pollute» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pollute/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.