foulness

Foulness is the quality or state of being foul. It can describe odors, tastes, air, or liquids that are offensive, dirty, or spoiled. The term is often used for unpleasant smells, such as the foulness of a stagnant pool or the foulness of the air after contamination. It can also refer to unsanitary conditions or to the overall offensiveness of a substance, place, or environment.

In addition to sensory or sanitary senses, foulness can describe moral or ethical corruption, such as the perceived foulness of intent, behavior, or schemes. The word is slightly formal and is more common in literary, historical, or descriptive writing than in everyday speech, where adjectives like foul-smelling, disgusting, or dirty are more typical, and where foulness appears as a nominalization.

Etymology: Foulness derives from the adjective foul, with the abstract noun suffix -ness. The sense of foulness as something unpleasant or offensive goes back to Old English and Middle English, with cognates in related Germanic languages.

Geography: Foulness is also the name of a geographic location in England (Foulness Island, in Essex), a marshy area that has been the subject of drainage and land-reclamation projects and is known for wildlife habitats.

See also: fouling, foul, foul smell, odor, stench, malfeasance, corruption.