Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Flowing out or forth.
- n. Something that flows out or forth, especially:
- n. A stream flowing out of a body of water.
- n. An outflow from a sewer or sewage system.
- n. A discharge of liquid waste, as from a factory or nuclear plant.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Flowing out; emanating.
- n. That which flows out or issues forth.
- n. Specifically, in geography, a stream that flows out of another stream or out of a lake: as, the Atchafalaya is an effluent of the Mississippi river.
- n. In mathematics, a covariant of a quantic of degree mn in i variables, the covariant being of degree m and in p variables, where p is the number of permutations that can be obtained by dividing n into i parts.
Wiktionary
- adj. Flowing out; outflowing.
- n. A stream that flows out, such as from a lake or reservoir; an outflow; effluence.
- n. Sewage water that has been (partially) treated, and is released into a natural body of water; a flow of any liquid waste.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Flowing out.
- n. (Geog.) A stream that flows out of another stream or lake.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. that is flowing outward
- n. water mixed with waste matter
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Latin effluēns, effluent-, present participle of effluere, to flow out : ex-, ex- + fluere, to flow; see bhleu- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Also, if the grass courts were fertilized with fecal effluent from the Canada geese and Nutria overpopulating all of our public parks and golf courses, it would be a real "win-win" for nature and the economy.”
“There have been a number of bottling plants in India where the level of the water supply has dramatically dropped and in some cases there have been studies showing that effluent from the plants has dumped cadmium, chromium and other carcinogens onto the land of those who live in the community.”
The Huffington Post: Tara Lohan: The Coke Machine: New Book Reveals the Dirty Truth Behind Coca-Cola
“Noise rose from below like effluent from a blocked toilet and the light was so dim the waitress had to check the reservation book with a torch.”
“The effluent is pumped into drainage ditches. visualjohn”
“The effluent is pumped to the top of the evaporators, and flows down the inside of the tubes as a thin film.”
“At the treatment plants, the MWRD removes most of the pollutants and separates the solid wastes from the liquid wastes and then discharges the treated wastewater - called effluent - into the Chicago area waterways.”
“(Pratt says the effluent is a mixture of soot, dirt and salt, as well as some hazardous substances such as lead and arsenic.)”
The Wall Street Journal: Airlines Dip Into Hot Water to Save Fuel
“The end goal is treated water (called effluent), which San Francisco dumps into the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay.”
“The cleaned effluent, which is cleaned liquid, which is what sewage becomes, is discharged into a waterway or the nearest lake or river.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘effluent’.
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Water always flows downhill
The path of least resistance, watercourses, plumbing....
swale, hollow, creek, crick, depression, holler, draw, ditch, corrie, cwm, continental divide, stream and 89 more...
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PECH - fishing technology
anchor, berth, drop anchor, anchored floating..., artificial restoc..., bait, beam trawls, bottom gillnets, entangling nets, bottom nets, bottom-set nets, bottom pair trawl and 478 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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AGRI - sustainable agriculture
abiota, aborigines, absorptive capacity, acceptable daily ..., acclimation, acid precipitation, acquired by weeds..., active solar heating, acute, adaptation, additives, aerosol and 447 more...
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vocab 2
accrue, lenity, pellucid, smitten, implore, scrupulous, recalcitrant, melancholy, trudge, reverie, convivial, corrigible and 19 more...
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Remember Not To Forget
Sephardic, Umwelt, amphiboly, untrammeled, sequela, pandiculation, tensegrity, syncretism, pugilism, shemagh, disquisition, perspicacity and 65 more...
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sewerly words
words that have to do with the sewers and the stuff that goes into them can be as gross as you like but stay on the topic of pipes poop and piles of sludge animals found in there are also welcome
sewage, sewerage, sludge, feces, poop, sewers, gunk, rat, mutant ninja turtles, alligator, sanitary sewer, storm sewer and 10 more...
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Actual Words
I checked, because I wasn't sure, but these words were coined and entered into a dictionary before I thought them up.
dishevelment, commoditize, feck, foppery, grimoire, apposite, impassible, reparable, arithmomania, patois, absquatulate, scopperil and 18 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
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Valuseless
Of low worth or little importance.
Unwanted matter by drusky is a nice, related list.trivial, cheap, inutile, ineffectual, dross, floccinaucinihili..., gimcrack, frippery, invalidated, drivel, otiose, tripe and 91 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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tree's Words
aphasia, anhedonia, promontory, misandry, amanuensis, asymptote, penultimate, muslin, tundra, calico, kinaesthesia, rutabaga and 209 more...
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tomax's Words
legerdemain, yayo, extravasation, wont, faze, coxswain, concomitant, enclave, unguent, rhabdomyolysis, effluent, puerile and 432 more...
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Loxodont's list
circumambulate, atelectasis, paramount, therefore, apotropaic, facture, identity, dome, lecture, cannibal, catatonia, rite and 119 more...
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redtagevent's Words
exiguous, numen, recondite, concatenate, tuistic, interstitial, peroration, asperity, alacrity, expatiate, farouche, rhodomontade and 112 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for effluent.
cutlery "alleys stank of effluent" (Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, 048.1) Jan 24, 2010
kewpid Some people are both. Nov 11, 2008
whichbe Tee-hee! This word sounds so much like affluent. Aug 19, 2008