smoggy
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of smoggy
Explanation
If something is smoggy, it's hazy with a smoky kind of fog. On a smoggy day, you can see the pollution in the air. Smoggy air is full of smog, a word that comes from combining smoke and fog. The term was invented in the early 1900s to describe an unfortunate weather phenomenon first noted in London, where "pea soup fog" was a serious problem for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. Today's smoggy cities get their smog from different sources—instead of coal fires, for example, smoggy pollution is mainly caused by cars.
Vocabulary lists containing smoggy
Portmanteaus: Vocab Mash-Ups
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for November 3–November 9, 2024
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Enchanted Air
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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.
“You’ve probably noticed that the air looks smoggy today—that’s the particulate matter,” Cohan, the Rice University professor, said via email that day.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 21, 2026
It was often hot, dusty and smoggy and even though she had spent two weeks beforehand doing sessions in a heat chamber to acclimatise, it was unlike anything she had ever experienced.
From BBC • Apr. 27, 2026
Authorities once again issued an alert on Friday, a common occurrence on smoggy winter days, with cleaner air expected by Sunday.
From Barron's • Jan. 23, 2026
On a recent smoggy morning, the hulking San Bernardino Mountains veiled by a gray-brown haze, Eric Lawson paused to offer his thoughts.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 2, 2025
They call this part of California the Inland Empire, and it’s always smoggy, because whatever nastiness is in the air gets blown here and caught against the mountains.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
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.
