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mephitis

[ muh-fahy-tis ]

/ məˈfaɪ tɪs /

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR mephitis ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

(in nontechnical use) a noxious or pestilential exhalation from the earth, as poison gas.

any noisome or poisonous stench.

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RELATED WORDS

stink, smell, reek, vapor, odor, gas, fumes, smog, pollution, stench, fetor, effluvium, redolence, funk, malodor

Nearby words

Origin of mephitis

1700–10; < Latin mephītis, mefītis; compare Oscan Mefit(eí) the goddess of such exhalations

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for mephitis

Yet mephitis has the air of seeming rather to like, than to seek to avoid, mankind.
Belford's Magazine, Vol II, No. 10, March 1889|Various
A skunk, (mephitis Americana,) which was killed in the afternoon, made a supper for one of the messes.
The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California|Brevet Col. J.C. Fremont
The small mandibular ramus of a musteline referred by Dr. Roth to Mephitis suffocans, does not pertain to this genus and species.
Through the Heart of Patagonia|H. Hesketh Prichard
Mephitis is, however, purely American wherever he comes from.
Belford's Magazine, Vol II, No. 10, March 1889|Various

"Mephitis," I gasped, and instantly put several feet more between us.
Little Brothers of the Air|Olive Thorne Miller

Medicine definitions for mephitis

mephitis

[ mə-fī′tĭs ]

n.

An offensive smell; a stench.

A poisonous or foul-smelling gas emitted from the earth.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.