effluvium

American  

[ih-floo-vee-uhm] / ɪˈflu vi əm /

noun

• effluvia,
  plural
• effluviums
  plural

1. a slight or invisible exhalation or vapor, especially one that is disagreeable or noxious.

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effluvium British  

/ ɛˈfluːvɪəm /

noun

1. an unpleasant smell or exhalation, as of gaseous waste or decaying matter

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• effluvial
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• effluvia
  plural
• effluviums
  plural

Etymology

Origin of effluvium

1640–50; < Latin, equivalent to ef- ef- + fluv-, base of fluere to flow ( see effluent) + -ium -ium

Explanation

Effluvium is a smelly gas, vapor, or an exhalation. You wouldn't want to breathe in the effluvium from a cargo ship or you might become ill. Stick to sailing. Not a particularly common word these days, effluvium dates back to the 1600's, meaning "a flowing out of air." Since the effluvium seeping out of the tire factory's chimney was invisible, park officials took months to realize fumes were killing hundreds of birds. The Romans were the first to invent a sewage system, thereby diverting effluvium into the drains and out of the city. Thank you, Romans.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

effluvium effluvia effluviums

Unlike genetic or hormone-driven loss, I had a textbook case of telogen effluvium, or stress shedding.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2025

Evidently, telogen effluvium happens when the body undergoes emotional, physical or hormonal shock and pushes more hairs than usual into the resting phase.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2025

“Telogen effluvium short-circuits the cycle for many hairs,” Garza said.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 10, 2022

Once such undisguised hatred is hurled, its effluvium clings, no matter how much is done to wash it away.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 24, 2020

The gutters filled with rust-colored pine needles and the pungent effluvium of alder leaves, and the drainpipes splashed with winter rain.

From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson

One turbine spins in the fiery effluvia of engine exhaust, with temperatures around 1,000 degrees.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026

Many Wallingford houses were built to avoid the hellish view of tower effluvia.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 20, 2023

In the new world, now free of liturgy and magic, “the balsamic effluvia of springtime meadows,” writes Corbin, “became an obsession.”

From New York Times ● May 10, 2021

The Times leader writer, Oliver Kamm, author of Accidence Will Happen: The Non-Pedantic Guide to English, says that the swearing lexicon now draws less from religion and more from body effluvia.

From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2017

His senses had not been assailed by any noisome effluvia.

From Ormond, Volume I (of 3) or, The Secret Witness by Charles Brockden Brown

The reason for the stillness is the neighborhood's proximity to something called the Brio Superfund site, a place that once housed two waste-disposal plants and now contains a witches' brew of toxic effluviums.

From Time Magazine Archive

Boyle's tracts of the years 1673 and 1674 on "effluviums," their "determinate nature," their "strange subtilty," and their "great efficacy," are examples.

From On the magnet, magnetick bodies also, and on the great magnet the earth a new physiology, demonstrated by many arguments & experiments by William Gilbert