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In notes taken during a voyage to South America on the HMS Beagle in the 1830s, Charles Darwin described an illness that he believed was caused by "miasma" emanating from stagnant pools of water. For him, miasma had the same meaning that it did when it first appeared in English in the 1600s: an emanation of a vaporous disease-causing substance. (Miasma comes from Greek miainein, meaning "to pollute.") But while Darwin was at sea, broader applications of miasma were starting to spread. Nowadays, we know germs are the source of infection, so we're more likely to use the newer, more figurative sense of miasma, which refers to something destructive or demoralizing that surrounds or permeates.
Examples of miasma in a Sentence
Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 26 Mar. 2026
Any proposal to increase taxes on that same November ballot — however justified — is almost certainly doomed, and might even add to the miasma of faux outrage that’s already surrounding the statewide tax cut.
—Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, The Orlando Sentinel, 14 Mar. 2026
Disease is caused by miasma, insufficient beef tallow, corn syrup, the evil eye.
—Alexandra Petri, The Atlantic, 14 Feb. 2026
With the exception of an eerie choral miasma that floats in the background, everything tonal is percussive and everything percussive is tonal, leaving you buffeted on all sides by soft, colorful wallops, as though suspended in a tornado of beanbags.
—Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 4 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for miasma
Cite this Entry
“Miasma.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/miasma. Accessed 2 May. 2026.
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