miasma

American  

[mahy-az-muh, mee-] / maɪˈæz mə, mi- /

noun

• miasmas,
  plural
• miasmata
  plural

1. noxious exhalations from putrescent organic matter; poisonous effluvia or germs polluting the atmosphere.

2. a dangerous, foreboding, or deathlike influence or atmosphere.

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miasma British  

/ mɪˈæzmə /

noun

1. an unwholesome or oppressive atmosphere

2. pollution in the atmosphere, esp noxious vapours from decomposing organic matter

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• miasmal
  adjective
• miasmatic
  adjective
• miasmatical
  adjective
• miasmic
  adjective
• unmiasmal
  adjective
• unmiasmatic
  adjective
• unmiasmatical
  adjective
• unmiasmic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• miasmas
  plural
• miasmata
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of miasma

1655–65; < New Latin < Greek míasma stain, pollution, akin to miaínein to pollute, stain

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Explanation

A miasma is a cloud of foul-smelling vapor, like swamp gas. You could have a miasma of sweat that lingers in a locker room long after a soccer team has left, or a miasma of rumor swirling around a politician. As you've probably figured out, miasma is always negative. You could describe the miasma of a hot summer day, but you'd be thinking of the stench of uncollected garbage and exhaust fumes, not the smell of summer flowers. From the Middle Ages until the late 19th century, when germs were identified as causing disease, people believed that you could get sick from the miasma of everyday life — from the odors arising from poor sanitation and cramped quarters.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

miasma miasmas miasmata

As I emerged from my children’s earliest years—a miasma of Duplo blocks, nursing pads and sleepless nights—I felt utterly depleted, not just in a physical sense but in a creative one.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026

It was a couple of weeks after the great smog had brought London to a standstill, and although that particularly foul miasma had dispersed, smog still regularly reduced visibility.

From BBC ● Dec. 30, 2024

Maddow then segued into a more comprehensive discussion about the rule of law, which she argued was not an abstract "miasma" but rather, is "specific stuff."

From Salon ● May 7, 2024

In characteristic Haynes fashion, though, nothing is as it first seems in this shimmering Gothic, including the light that becomes more like a queasy, suffocating miasma.

From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2023

A miasma of cinder-flecked smoke blackened its streets and at times reduced visibility to the distance of a single block, especially in winter, when coal furnaces were in full roar.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Some scientists believed that diseases were the result of miasmas, or bad smells such as those produced by dead bodies, biological waste and other disease-carrying substances.

From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2022

It’s also possible the miasmas of their lives and interests will swirl off in other directions for any number of other reasons independent of how they feel about each other.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 27, 2021

Modern warfare creates miasmas of emotion, information, misinformation, deception and secrecy.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 8, 2018

If one bought into the dangers of miasmas, it wasn’t much of a leap to buy into the dangers of one’s own internal sewage.

From Salon ● Apr. 7, 2013

Senci noted it, and sorrowful Io, but they, like Mentu, ascribed it to the miasmas and said nothing to the young man about himself.

From The Yoke A Romance of the Days when the Lord Redeemed the Children of Israel from the Bondage of Egypt by Elizabeth Miller

It is very extraordinary to see barren savannahs loaded with miasmata.

From Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 2 by Alexander von Humboldt

I believe that it is by a direct operation on the system, and not by the generation of miasmata, that heat proves so deleterious to the infant.

From North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826 by Franklin Bache

Much of that region is heavily timbered, and, upon cutting it away in spots, and letting in the rays of the sun upon vegetable matter undergoing decomposition, miasmata are generated.

From A New Guide for Emigrants to the West by John Mason Peck

It cleanses the atmosphere, and sweeps away the poisonous miasmata, which have been engendered during a period of quiescence, and which must, if not removed, prove prejudicial to human life.

From Religion in Earnest A Memorial of Mrs. Mary Lyth, of York by John Lyth

The atmosphere of such a town would be like that of the country, insusceptible of the miasmata which produce yellow fever.

From Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 4 by Thomas Jefferson Randolph

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