polluting
polluting is the present participle and gerund of pollute.
Meaning of pollute
Verb
pollute (third-person singular simple present pollutes, present participle polluting, simple past and past participle polluted)
- To make something harmful, especially by the addition of some unwanted product.
- The factory polluted the river when it cleaned its tanks.
- Synonyms:
- contaminate, poison, taint
- To make something or somewhere less suitable for some activity, especially by the introduction of some unnatural factor.
- The lights from the stadium polluted the night sky, and we couldn't see the stars.
- To corrupt or profane
- But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.1952, Bible (Revised Standard Version, Revelation 21:8
- Synonyms:
- debauch, lead astray, defile, sully, adulterate, corrupt, demoralize, detort, file, immoralize
- To violate sexually; to debauch; to dishonour.
- to flatulate.
Adjective
polluting (comparative more polluting, superlative most polluting)
- Causing pollution; having a tendency to pollute.
- De-icing a plane is expensive, polluting, and time-consuming, so when sudden weather changes mean it has to be done twice, that has an impact on the bottom line, the environment and on-time departures.2023 May 5, Julie Weed, “AI Is Helping Airlines Prevent Delays and Turbulence”, in The New York Times
- But because rare earths are polluting to mine and process, it can take nearly three decades to get permission to open and operate a rare-earth mine in America, so finding substitutes won’t be easy.2025 April 19, Nicholas Kristof, “What Trump Isn’t Telling You About His Trade War With China”, in The New York Times
Forms of polluting
| comparative | more polluting |
|---|---|
| superlative | most polluting |
Words formed from polluting
Questions about polluting
- What does polluting mean?
- Polluting means causing pollution; having a tendency to pollute.
- What is polluting the present participle and gerund of?
- Polluting is the present participle and gerund of pollute.
- What part of speech is polluting?
- Polluting is an adjective.
Words near polluting in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: polluting (page history and authors); pollute (page history and authors). 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:
Cite this entry: “polluting.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/polluting. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
