miasma
noxious exhalations from putrescent organic matter; poisonous effluvia or germs polluting the atmosphere.
a dangerous, foreboding, or deathlike influence or atmosphere.
Origin of miasma
1Other words from miasma
- mi·as·mal, mi·as·mat·ic [mahy-az-mat-ik], /ˌmaɪ æzˈmæt ɪk/, mi·as·mat·i·cal, mi·as·mic, adjective
- un·mi·as·mal, adjective
- un·mi·as·mat·ic, adjective
- un·mi·as·mat·i·cal, adjective
- un·mi·as·mic, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use miasma in a sentence
Yet it kept off some of the chill night air, and the miasmatic breath of that “dismal swamp.”
Nurse and Spy in the Union Army | S. Emma E. EdmondsTrees were thrown down, and lie rotting in the black and miasmatic water.
The Naval History of the United States | Willis J. Abbot.Diarrhea, typhoid fever, and other miasmatic maladies, became almost universal.
Three Years in the Sixth Corps | George T. StevensTheir course now lay for many leagues through a low country, abounding in lakes, and miasmatic marshes, and sluggish rivers.
Hernando Cortez | John S. C. AbbottThe air was damp, oppressive and miasmatic, probably because of the rank vegetation that grew everywhere.
Up the Forked River | Edward Sylvester Ellis
British Dictionary definitions for miasma
/ (mɪˈæzmə) /
an unwholesome or oppressive atmosphere
pollution in the atmosphere, esp noxious vapours from decomposing organic matter
Origin of miasma
1Derived forms of miasma
- miasmal, miasmatic (ˌmiːəzˈmætɪk), miasmatical or miasmic, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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