mephitic

UK/ˌmɛˈfɪ.tɪk/

mephitic adjective: foul-smelling or noxious, particularly of a gas or atmosphere.

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Adjective

mephitic (comparative more mephitic, superlative most mephitic)

Foul-smelling or noxious, particularly of a gas or atmosphere.
- "I could have borne the sight of his crutch," said she, "but the crutch and the nephew together really oppress me like a mephitic vapour."1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter LXI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 151–152
- It is impossible to convey, in words, any idea of the hideous phantasmagoria of shifting limbs and faces which moved through the evil-smelling twilight of this terrible prison-house. Callot might have drawn it, Dante might have suggested it, but a minute attempt to describe its horrors would but...1874, Marcus Clarke, chapter V, in For the Term of His Natural Life

mephitic meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

mephitic in Tamil

தீயநாற்றம் வெளியேற்றுகின்ற

mephitic in Urdu

بدبودار, گندا, مضر, سڑا ہوا

mephitic in Bengali

দ্রুতগন্ধী, পচা গন্ধযুক্ত

mephitic in Malayalam

malodorous, smelly, foul-smelling: ഹാനികരമായ ദുർഗന്ധം വമിക്കുന്ന, ദുർഗന്ധമുള്ള, നാറ്റമുള്ള, പൂതിഗന്ധമുള്ള, നാറുന്ന, ചൂരുള്ള

Examples of mephitic in a sentence

There are depths in humanity which one cannot explore, as there are mephitic caverns into which one dare not penetrate.1874, Marcus Clarke, chapter V, in For the Term of His Natural Life:
From this crawling flapping mass of obscene reptilian life came the shocking clamor which filled the air and the mephitic, horrible, musty odor which turned us sick.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
More than that, perhaps the worst thing, was a sort of mephitic fog, moistureless and invisible, that came and went like an exhalation of the arid earth itself.1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, paperback edition, Virago Press, page 3:

Forms of mephitic

comparative	more mephitic
superlative	most mephitic

Origin of mephitic

From Latin mephīticus, from mephītis; compare French méphitique.

Words formed from mephitic

Phrases with mephitic

mephitic toads

Words that rhyme with mephitic

21 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about mephitic

What does mephitic mean?: Mephitic means foul-smelling or noxious, particularly of a gas or atmosphere.
What is mephitic in Tamil?: Mephitic in Tamil is தீயநாற்றம் வெளியேற்றுகின்ற. See Mephitic meaning in Tamil.
How do you use mephitic in a sentence?: There are depths in humanity which one cannot explore, as there are mephitic caverns into which one dare not penetrate.
What part of speech is mephitic?: Mephitic is an adjective.
How do you pronounce mephitic?: Mephitic is pronounced /ˌmɛˈfɪ.tɪk/ (UK).

Words near mephitic in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: mephitic (page history and authors); mephitic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mephitic (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mephitic (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mephitic (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Neøn-mephitic.wav.

Cite this entry: “mephitic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mephitic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.