sewage
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of sewage
Explanation
The waste water that flows down drains and through pipes from toilets and sinks is called sewage. There's nothing quite like smelling sewage on a hot summer day. Have you ever wondered where the soapy, dirty water from your washing machine goes after your clothes are clean? It flows down the drain into a pipe, and is carried with other sewage out to the street and your city's wastewater system, or into a private septic tank. Sewage comes from the now-obsolete verb sew, "to drain or draw off water."
Vocabulary lists containing sewage
The Omnivore's Dilemma
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for June 8–June 14, 2025
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Unit 9, Week 3
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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.
The pipes had clogged and the room was flooded with sewage coming up a drain.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
The source of the stench was the canal itself, a stretch of sewage, chemicals and other unmentionables in “green water that hissed and bubbled like a witch’s cauldron.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Heavy metal pollution is common around industrial sites, mining regions, cities, and towns, but contaminants can also spread into rural landscapes through the air, sewage sludge, fertilizers, and other agricultural products.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 7, 2026
The company adds limestone in wastewater treatment facilities to counter the carbon released when sewage is treated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026
Pipes for sewage, water, steam, and coa gas.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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.
