miasma
Americannoun
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noxious exhalations from putrescent organic matter; poisonous effluvia or germs polluting the atmosphere.
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a dangerous, foreboding, or deathlike influence or atmosphere.
noun
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an unwholesome or oppressive atmosphere
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pollution in the atmosphere, esp noxious vapours from decomposing organic matter
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of miasma
1655–65; < New Latin < Greek míasma stain, pollution, akin to miaínein to pollute, stain
Explanation
A miasma is a cloud of foul-smelling vapor, like swamp gas. You could have a miasma of sweat that lingers in a locker room long after a soccer team has left, or a miasma of rumor swirling around a politician. As you've probably figured out, miasma is always negative. You could describe the miasma of a hot summer day, but you'd be thinking of the stench of uncollected garbage and exhaust fumes, not the smell of summer flowers. From the Middle Ages until the late 19th century, when germs were identified as causing disease, people believed that you could get sick from the miasma of everyday life — from the odors arising from poor sanitation and cramped quarters.
Vocabulary lists containing miasma
Fever 1793
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"The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
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A Wrinkle in Time
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That perfection of air and climate that lured filmmakers here in the first place was being lost in a brown miasma.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026
Few writers since Henry James can create an atmosphere of doubt around events and character as effectively as this author does, and in “Venetian Vespers” the miasma thickens at every turn.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 9, 2025
Above all, we experience a pervasive miasma of helplessness as we are forced to watch this intolerable train wreck.
From Salon • Sep. 20, 2025
They were interning at a local dance studio, teaching yoga to kids and unsteadily emerging from a miasma of childhood depression.
From New York Times • Mar. 20, 2024
Even in the miasma of her Gaelic mind, she had come to see that asses do not mate with pythons.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
