How to use pollute in a sentence

37 example sentences · verb, adjective

Pollute means to make something harmful, especially by the addition of some unwanted product. Example: “The factory polluted the river when it cleaned its tanks.”

Examples of pollute by meaning

verbTo make something harmful, especially by the addition of some unwanted product.

The factory polluted the river when it cleaned its tanks.

verbTo 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.

verbTo 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

More sentences with pollute

Residents have little control over the industrial effluent that pollutes their rivers.From the entry effluent
This water is too polluted for us to drink (it).From the entry too
A well is foul with polluted water.From the entry foul
Paradoxically, open defecation areas were less polluted than densely toileted areas.2023, Parthasarathi Shome, The Creation of Poverty and Inequality in India: Exclusion, Isolation, Domination and Extraction, Bristol…. From the entry toileted
The dense meshwork of mycelium can even be used to filter polluted water.2020, Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life, page 206. From the entry meshwork
Physical immortality on the polluted planet, where poverty still exists, is meaningless.2019, Newton Lee, The Transhumanism Handbook, Springer, →ISBN, page 853. From the entry equalism
The recognition of what pollutes evidently reflects deep-seated abhorrences, whose cause and origin are difficult to discover.2018, Dr. Philip J. Budd, David Allen Hubbard, Glenn W. Barker, Numbers, volume 5, page 55. From the entry abhorrence
And as your lungs can attest, it is one of the most polluted cities in the country.2015 October 16, Matt O'Brien, “This is where China’s future will be decided.”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the…. From the entry Gansu
Today Qingshan district is a patchwork of tiny fields, polluted streams and roadside markets selling building materials.2012, Tom Miller, “The Construction Orgy: Paving the Fields”, in China's Urban Billion: The Story Behind the Biggest Migration in Human…. From the entry smokestack
Another Saturday night, I came back to the barracks half polluted.2007, Charles E. Willingham, In My Time: The Greatest Century of Change in the History of Man, iUniverse, →ISBN. From the entry half polluted
If whiteness bespoke purity and godliness, then poor white trash implied an ungodly, desacralized, polluted whiteness.2006, Matt Wray, Not Quite White, page 47. From the entry desacralize
The byproduct of the lifestyle, is polluted rivers, greenhouse effect, spouse abuse, televangelists, and serial killers.1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 274. From the entry thermodynamically
It was a sin to pollute a stream or river by urinating in it.1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the…. From the entry urinate
Moreover, the reservoir has been polluted by industrial waste.2015 November 30, Maximiliane Koschyk, “COP21: China's climate efforts far from sufficient”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original…. From the entry Hubei
God, this is really going to pollute my vacation.2007, Alexandra Koslow, Slacker Girl - Page 163. From the entry bossish
Peanut fields in Sihhu Township, Yunlin County were polluted.2005, Annual Report, Council of Agriculture, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 26. From the entry Sihhu
Many cities from Shanghai to Djakarta are badly polluted.2002, Hilde Heynen, Back from Utopia: The Challenge of the Modern Movement. From the entry Djakarta
An uncle of mine in Delhi thinks that I have become polluted, that I have lost caste by working with leather.1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, London: QPD, Chapter 9.11, p. 577. From the entry lose caste
As for yon clod of clay, we will bury it later, lest it should pollute so goodly a pool.1903, Warwick Deeping, Uther and Igraine. From the entry clod
It has been claimed that the faeries have gone away as humanity developed his technology and polluted his air, water, and soil.2018, David Miner, The Edge of the Circle. From the entry ring of truth
In a very 'ugly' mood, I got absolutely polluted and drunk the next night in San Diego for the very first time in my life.2014 January 16, Bill Aken, Carry Your Own Guitar: From Abandoned Child to Legendary Musician - the True Story of Bill Aken, Xlibris…. From the entry polluted
It would start, then stall, then start again with a blurp, while clouds of blue smoke and sickening gas fumes polluted the air.2006, Hughina Harold, Totem Poles and Tea, page 43. From the entry blurp
Those polluted external intruders who cross the boundaries of her ritual sanctuary unwittingly "reviolate" her bodily boundaries with the pollutants which they exude.1994, Marcia Claire Inhorn, Quest for conception. From the entry reviolate
Little polluted by the wastes that plague much of the Mediterranean, hundreds of miles of island-studded coast make Yugoslavia a prime destination for tourists.1990 August, Kenneth C. Danforth, “Yugoslavia: A House Much Divided”, in National Geographic, volume 178, number 2, page 106. From the entry little
Recalling the crossbreeding of the lakeside daisy, he insists, "If we hadn't polluted that population with Ohio plants it might have vanished.1988 April 15, James Krohe Jr., “Where Has All the Flora Gone?”, in Chicago Reader. From the entry crossbreed
Give a hoot — don't pollute!1971 September 15, United States Forest Service, Woodsy Owl PSA, YouTube. From the entry give a hoot
And in the midst of better conditions and brighter prospects the shameless, brainless, fameless bipeds pollute the atmosphere, poison hearts and plant discontent.1915, William Crosbie Hunter, Evening Round Up. From the entry fameless
You’ll probably have heard about London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) – it’s a government initiative designed to improve air quality in the highly polluted city-centre.2020 April 22, Andrew Woodhouse, “ULEZ, LEZ and CAZ: UK low emission zones explained”, in Auto Trader. From the entry ULEZ
Worker bees were collected from hives located in a polluted postmining area in South West Sardinia (Italy) that is also exposed to dust emissions from industrial plants.2015 July 6, “Honey Bees ( Apis mellifera, L.) as Active Samplers of Airborne Particulate Matter”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry postmining
So, pollute your namespace with almost two dozen subroutines that you may not even use that often, or risk a silly bug by mistyping an attribute.1997, Larry Wall, Perl Resource Kit, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 586. From the entry TMTOWTDI
The seas, morosely fished by Ethan and the others, are heavily polluted, with Ethan informing Timothy, who risked a freezing dip: “If the tide doesn’t get you, the chems will.2016 August 4, Catherine Taylor, “The Many by Wyl Menmuir review – a disturbing debut”, in The Guardian. From the entry chem
The city, one of China's most polluted, will consolidate 10 local steel firms and invest 38 billion yuan ($5.54 billion) to build the new Tangshan Bohai Steel Project, Xinhua reported.2016 November 14, David Stanway, “China's Tangshan to build new $5.5 billion steel project, cut capacity: Xinhua”, in Kenneth Maxwell…. From the entry Fengnan
However, the residents of Lu-kang and its nearby villages feared that the construction of a DuPont plant would definitely pollute local water and destroy the area’s seashore beauty and fishery.1987, Wen-hui Tsai, “Taiwan's Social Developments”, in Huangdah Chiu, editor, Survey of Recent Developments in China (Mainland and…. From the entry Lu-kang
Close by the door stood the mixen, a collection of every abomination streams from which, in rainy weather, fertilized the lower meadows, generally the lord's pasture, and polluted the stream.1933, David Marshall Brooks, The Necessity of Atheism (Brooks)/Chapter XVI, Chapter XVI. From the entry mixen

Meaning of pollute

verb To make something harmful, especially by the addition of some unwanted product.
verb To make something or somewhere less suitable for some activity, especially by the introduction of some unnatural factor.
verb To corrupt or profane.

Full definition of pollute

Questions about pollute in a sentence

How do you use pollute in a sentence?: Pollute is used as a verb and adjective. For example: “The factory polluted the river when it cleaned its tanks.”
What is a short sentence with pollute?: “Give a hoot — don't pollute!”
What does pollute mean?: Pollute means to make something harmful, especially by the addition of some unwanted product.

Adapted from Wiktionary: pollute (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use pollute in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/pollute. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.