effluence
Americannoun
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the action or process of flowing out; efflux.
-
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
That effluence cannot be easily considered in abstraction from his personality,—being indeed the very radiance and aroma of his personality, projected from it but not separated.
From Browning's England A Study in English Influences in Browning by Helen Archibald Clarke
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
