effluence
Americannoun
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the action or process of flowing out; efflux.
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something that flows out; emanation.
noun
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the act or process of flowing out
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something that flows out
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of effluence
1595–1605; < Latin efflu- outflow ( ef- ef- + flu- flow) + -ence
Explanation
Use the word effluence when you talk about the action of something flowing or pouring out. The effluence of air from a popped balloon can sometimes send it flying around the room. When you use the noun effluence, you are describing the quick spurt or flow of a substance. You might mention the effluence of bad breath from your dog or exclaim at the effluence of water from a draining kiddie pool. Both the process of the outflow and the substance itself — the water or air — can be called effluence. The Latin root is effluere, "to flow out," from ex, "out," and fluere, "to flow.
Vocabulary lists containing effluence
By the Roots: Fluere: to flow (flu-)
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Purgatory
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Serafina and the Black Cloak
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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.
In these homes, effluence from toilets and showers flows through drains into a pit in a yard instead of into a sewer line and to a central wastewater treatment plant.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 5, 2023
The combined effluence of 400-plus Antarctic lakes no doubt exerts a significant influence on the Southern Ocean’s chemistry and biology.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 12, 2020
But it actually is a Spanish expression, “of where the sea goes”; while the Spanish never settled this area, they would empty their bilges so the ocean would wash away their effluence.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 20, 2016
Green sludge came to represent the effluence of government and industry—toxic waste as literal and figurative pollution.
From Slate ● Jul. 18, 2016
For the human soul itself is a fragment or effluence of the divine, and this Law of God is also the law of man's own Phusis.
From Five Stages of Greek Religion by Murray, Gilbert
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.
