sanitation
Americannoun
-
the development and application of sanitary measures for the sake of cleanliness, protecting health, etc.
-
the disposal of sewage and solid waste.
noun
Etymology
Origin of sanitation
First recorded in 1840–50; sanit(ary) + -ation
Explanation
Sanitation has to do with making things clean, especially by sterilizing. Have you ever used hand sanitizer to make sure your hands are germ-free? Then you should have an idea what sanitation is: making something clean (sanitary). Sanitation workers pick up your garbage, keeping your neighborhood clean. Sanitation is important in restaurants and also for surgical instruments. You wouldn't want a surgeon to touch you with an instrument that hadn't gone through sanitation, because it would probably have germs.
Vocabulary lists containing sanitation
Africa - Introductory
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Africa - Middle School
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Africa - High School
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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.
AFP reporters in Ceuta in the days following the influx saw unaccompanied children suffering limited access to food, water, shelter and sanitation.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes ordered the government to make sweeping changes to medical care, sanitation, food, recreation, disability accommodations and visitation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026
Much about the grimy parts of Burning Man is left unmentioned, leaving it up to Redditors to gripe about sanitation pile-ups departing Burners leave in nearby towns.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026
"Our sanitation is different, our risk of disease is different, and so those all play into the evaluation of whether this is worthwhile of taking a risk for a vaccine or not."
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
If the rise of farming was thus a bonanza for our microbes, the rise of cities was a greater one, as still more densely packed human populations festered under even worse sanitation conditions.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions 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.
