- mi|as|ma
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1. a bad-smelling vapor rising from decaying matter on the earth. The miasma of swamps was formerly supposed to cause disease. »
... far enough from the Dead Sea to escape its miasma (London Times).
2. Figurative. anything considered to resemble this in its ability to spread and poison: »a miasma of fear.
╂[< New Latin miasma < Greek míasma pollution < miaínein to pollute]
Useful english dictionary. 2012.
