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汚染 (おせん, osen) Japanese meaning: pollution | Kotomora
Common word› JLPT N3 › Freq. Frequency Top 5,000 Conjugation 汚染する · noun or participle which takes 'suru'
Form Positive Negative Dictionary 汚お 染せん する 汚お 染せん しない Polite 汚お 染せん します 汚お 染せん しません Past polite 汚お 染せん しました 汚お 染せん しませんでした Past 汚お 染せん した 汚お 染せん しなかった Te-form 汚お 染せん して 汚お 染せん しないで Desire 汚お 染せん したい 汚お 染せん したくない Potential 汚お 染せん できる 汚お 染せん できない Passive 汚お 染せん される 汚お 染せん されない Causative 汚お 染せん させる 汚お 染せん させない Causative passive 汚お 染せん させられる 汚お 染せん させられない Volitional 汚お 染せん しよう Polite volitional 汚お 染せん しましょう Imperative 汚お 染せん しろ 汚お 染せん するな Conditional 汚お 染せん すれば 汚お 染せん しなければ Tara conditional 汚お 染せん したら 汚お 染せん しなかったら
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が
深しん
刻こく
な
問もん
題だい
に
なっ
て
いる
。
Air pollution has become a serious problem.
The factory's wastewater contaminated the river.
The food was contaminated by bacteria.
Usage patterns 〈 場ば 所しょ 〉 が 〈 物もの 〉 で 汚お 染せん される a place gets contaminated by a substance
The river was polluted by the factory's wastewater.
〈 物もの 〉 が 〈 場ば 所しょ 〉 を 汚お 染せん する a substance contaminates a place
Toxic chemicals contaminated the soil.
汚お 染せん が 広ひろ がる contamination spreads
Air pollution is spreading across the entire city.
汚お 染せん を 防ふせ ぐ to prevent contamination
A new law was created to prevent environmental pollution.
Kanji 汚 dirty, pollute, disgrace Transitive / intransitive 汚染する can be used transitively, as in 工場が川を汚染する (the factory pollutes the river), or intransitively/passively as 汚染が進む (contamination progresses), though the passive/intransitive-like sense is usually expressed with される rather than a bare intransitive form.
Related words 公害 refers specifically to pollution caused by industrial or human activity that harms the public, often with legal or social implications, while 汚染 is the broader technical term for any contamination.
汚濁 is a more literary/technical term often used for water or air becoming foul and murky, whereas 汚染 covers contamination by any harmful substance more broadly.
汚す is a general everyday verb for making something dirty, while 汚染 is formal and technical, reserved for contamination by harmful agents like chemicals or radiation.
Opposites 浄化 means to purify or clean something up, the reverse process of 汚染 which means to contaminate or pollute it.
汚染 means contamination or pollution, the technical opposite of 洗浄, which means cleansing or removing contamination.
汚染 means contamination or pollution, the opposite process of 清掃, which restores cleanliness.
Don't confuse with 汚職 means corruption or bribery among officials, a completely different meaning from 汚染's environmental/chemical contamination, though both share the kanji 汚.
感染 refers to infection of a living organism by a pathogen, while 汚染 refers to contamination of an environment, object, or substance, even though both can involve germs.
Etymology Compound of 汚 (お, 'dirty, defile') and 染 (せん, 'dye, stain, infect'). The combination conveys the idea of being tainted or contaminated by an undesirable substance.
せん
菌きん
contaminant bacteria; contaminating microorganism
