particulate matter

English

Noun

particulate matter (countable and uncountable, plural particulate matters)

1. Any solid or liquid in a finely subdivided state, especially when considered as an atmospheric pollutant.

   Synonyms: particulates, PM

   Hyponyms: atmospheric particulate matter, suspended particulate matter

   • 2013 July 13, Ole Raaschou-Nielsen et al., “Air pollution and lung cancer incidence in 17 European cohorts: prospective analyses from the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE)”, in The Lancet Oncology, volume 14, number 9, →DOI:

     Particulate matter air pollution contributes to lung cancer incidence in Europe.

   • 2014, Guofeng Shen, Emission Factors of Carbonaceous Particulate Matter and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Residential Solid Fuel Combustions, Springer, →ISBN, page 60:

     Ambient particulate matter affects local/regional air quality, human health and climate change significantly. The carbonaceous fractions like organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC, sometimes known as black carbon) are of high […]

Usage notes

Sometimes abbreviated as PM with a subscripted number representing the size of the particles in micrometres. Thus, PM_2.5 represents particles with a maximum diameter of 2.5 µm.

Translations

solid or liquid in a finely subdivided state

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 懸浮微粒／悬浮微粒 (zh) (xuánfúwēilì), 顆粒物／颗粒物 (kēlìwù), 懸浮粒子／悬浮粒子 (xuánfúlìzǐ)

• Finnish: pienhiukkaset (fi) pl
• French: particules (fr) f pl
• German: Feinstaub (de) m
• Hungarian: szálló por (hu)
• Italian: particolato m
• Japanese: 粒子状物質 (りゅうしじょうぶっしつ, riyūshijōbusshitsu)
• Korean: 미세먼지 (misemeonji)
• Polish: cząstki stałe f pl, pył zawieszony m
• Portuguese: material particulado m
• Spanish: material particulado (es) m

See also

• aerosol (“particulate/air mixture”)

Further reading

• particulates on Wikipedia.Wikipedia