miasma

Word family

mi·as·ma /miˈæzmə, maɪ-/ noun [singular] literary

1 DNALdirty air or a thick unpleasant mist that smells bad 污浊难闻的空气，瘴气

He looked up at me through a miasma of cigarette smoke.

他在香烟烟雾中抬头看着我。

A foul miasma lay over the town.

一阵难闻的瘴气笼罩在小镇的上空。

2 BADan evil influence or feeling that seems to surround a person or place 有害的影响；不良的感觉

miasma of

The miasma of defeat hung over them.

失败的气氛弥漫在他们中间。

Examples from the Corpus

miasma• Suspicion rose like a miasma from which it was impossible ever to take a breath.• You feel the devastation of the war like a miasma over the battlefield.• An acrid miasma came from the sewage plant.• Acrid miasmas coiled from ventilation ducts and sewage flooded avenues.• But here the clouds converge and mist falls and general miasma overtakes the public brain.• I went to wash up as the table edge trembled to a familiar sick-to-the-gut miasma of nothingness.• A lurid miasma dazed his vision.• The two of them now resembled a superstitious swamp devil, humming, hovering, and plowing through the miasma.

Origin miasma

(1600-1700) Greek “making dirty”

Chinese

Syllable

Corpus

BNC: 34114 COCA: 26867

miasma

Gases: acetylene, ammonia, argon...