Air Quality Index
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The index is used by weather forecasters to indicate the purity of the air on a given day. The higher the index, the smoggier (see smog) and more polluted the air.
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.
On Wednesday, we had a rare afternoon where the Air Quality Index was below 100.
From Slate • Feb. 12, 2026
“Windblown ash particles may be too large to be detected by air quality instrumentation and will not influence Air Quality Index levels,” the advisory stated.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 14, 2025
A screen in a monitoring room, called the Smog Cell, showed Pakistan’s Air Quality Index to be higher than China’s that day.
From Seattle Times • Jan. 20, 2024
Over the past few days, Lahore's Air Quality Index - which measures the level of fine particulate matter in the air - have hovered around the 400 mark.
From BBC • Nov. 10, 2023
Air Quality Index — are good for manual checks of current conditions.
From New York Times • Jul. 5, 2023
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.