Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Sludge |
SludgeNoun1. The precipitate produced by sewage treatment. 2. Any thick messy substance. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "sludge" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1842. (references) |
Note: Sludge \Sludge\, noun. [Compare to Slush.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Electrical Engineering | The waste from battery paste during pasting. Source: European Union. (references) |
| The exhausted positive mass during the ageing process. Source: European Union. (references) | |
Environment | A semi-solid residue from any of a number of air or water treatment processes; can be a hazardous waste. (references) |
| Colloid disperse systems in water ; an agglomerate of solid and liquid materials with a tendency to form a deposit. Source: European Union. (references) | |
Food & Agriculture | Semi-frozen state, to which some wines are chilled in detartrating. Source: European Union. (references) |
| The spent solids of the original manure reduced to about 40 % of the volume it occupied in the raw state. Liquid or dry sludge makes an excellent fertilizer for crops and pond cultures. Source: European Union. (references) | |
| Farmyard manure which can be pumped; cf. solid manure; manure gas; manure effluent. Source: European Union. (references) | |
Mechanical Engineering | In a refrigeration system a product of decomposition of oil resulting from impurities, moisture or chemical reactions. Source: European Union. (references) |
Medicine | A clump of agglutinated red blood cells. Source: European Union. (references) |
Metallurgy | Accumulation of oxidized elements heavier than the base melt that settle to the bottom of a crucible or furnace. Source: European Union. (references) |
| A water-formed sedimentary deposit. Source: European Union. (references) | |
Mining | A. Refuse from a coal-washing plant b. In diamond drilling, the portion of core ground finely by accident or defect in drilling, and therefore reducing the reliability of the portion of the sample in which it happened. Mineral mud, slurry too thick to flow c. Rock cuttings produced by a drill bit d. See:cuttings e. A semifluid, slushy, murky mass of sediment resulting from treatment of water, sewage, or industrial and mining wastes; often appearing as local bottom deposits in polluted bodies of water. (references) |
Weather | Gooey solid mixture of bacteria and virus laden organic matter, toxic metals, synthetic organic chemicals, and solid chemicals removed from wastewater at a sewage treatment plant. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Sludge is a solid waste extracted in the process of sewage treatment. When fresh sewage water is added to a settling tank, approximately 50% of the suspended solid matter will settle out in the period of an hour and a half or so. This collection of solids is known as fresh sludge. Such sludge will become actively putrescent in a short time and must be removed from the sedimentation tank before this happens.This is commonly accomplished by two different ways. In an Imhoff tank, fresh sludge is passed through a slot to the lower story or digestion chamber where decomposition by anaerobic bacteria takes place resulting in liquefaction and a reduction in the volume of the sludge. After digesting for 6 to 9 months, the result is called "digested" sludge and may be disposed of by drying and then landfilling. It has value as fertilizer, being similar to humus. Alternately, the fresh sludge may be continuously extracted from the tank by mechanical means and passed on to separate sludge digestion tanks which operate at higher temperatures than the lower story of the Imhoff tank and as a result digest much more rapidly and efficiently.
See also by-product
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Sludge."
Synonyms: SludgeSynonyms: goo (n), gook (n), guck (n), gunk (n), muck (n), ooze (n), slime (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Uncleanness | Mud, mire, quagmire, alluvium, silt, sludge, slime, slush, slosh, sposh. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Sludge |
| English words defined with "sludge": sapropel ♦ treated. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "sludge": Activated Sludge ♦ biological sludge ♦ digested sludge, digested sludge pump ♦ green sludge ♦ lime sludge, liquid sludge ♦ raw sludge ♦ Sewage Sludge, sludge abatement, sludge box, sludge digestion chamber, sludge digestion compartment, sludge digestion tank, sludge sample ♦ treated sludge ♦ undigested sludge. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "sludge": Slutch. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I'm in deep sludge. (A Goofy Movie; writing credit: Jymn Magon; Chris Matheson) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Rectenwald, Dean Heckathorn, Nick Iadanza at the Spring Creek arm of Keswick Reservoir. The yellowish area under the water is sludge. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |  | 60,000 cubed yards of sludge (yellowish area) at 1% cu in the Spring Creek arm of Keswick Reservoir. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |
 | Brick Flat Pit. This pit was excavated to extract ore and was then used to dispose of sludge, an early and inefficient disposal method. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |  | An image of sludge. The sludge is composed of copper, zinc and iron bound in a carbonate mixture. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |
 | Treatment plant at Minnesota Flats to treat AMD from the Richmond and Lawson Portals. Water raised PH 1 - 11 to ppt sludge. The sludge was hauled to Brick Flat pit. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |  | Containment of sludge coming from Iron Mountain Mine, Lawson Portal. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |
 | Metal sludge from Spring Creek into Keswick Reservoir. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |  | Trucks (perhaps sludge carriers) on Iron Mountain Mine. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |
 | Black sludge from well, result of drilling soap liguifying organic clay and manganese layers in dolomite soil formationsMeadow Creek stock water wellBurley Field OfficeUSRDUpper Snake River District. Credit: Tim Fuller. |  | Coney Island Sewage Treatment Works, Ave. Z, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Sludge pump house I. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Municipal wastewater sludge is not included in these figures. (references) | |
A specific technological need for BMA is for sludge management systems. (references) | ||
The total amount of sewage sludge in the EU is estimated at 230 million tons per year. (references) | ||
Economic History | Malaysia | Activated sludge systems and aerated lagoons are becoming increasingly popular. (references) |
Uk | The U.S. holds over 20 per cent of the import market for screening and filtration, sludge dewatering, phosphorus and heavy metal removal, and anaerobic digestion systems. (references) | |
Bahrain | The Tubli expansion project will involve other packages: one package for the sludge treatment plant and five for the expansion of the distribution network and one for the expansion of the drainage system. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Sludge" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 95.95% of the time. "Sludge" is used about 173 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 95.95% | 166 | 24,220 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.89% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 1.16% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 173 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "sludge": activated sludge ♦ biological sludge ♦ digested sludge ♦ digested sludge pump ♦ green sludge ♦ Ice sludge ♦ lime sludge ♦ liquid sludge ♦ raw sludge ♦ sewage sludge ♦ sludge acid ♦ sludge digestion chamber ♦ sludge digestion compartment ♦ sludge digestion tank ♦ sludge from electrolytic baths ♦ sludge hole ♦ sludge return ♦ stabilized sludge ♦ stillage sludge ♦ treated sludge ♦ undigested sludge. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "sludge": sludge-blanket, sludge-coloured, sludge-digestion, sludge-filled, sludge-green, sludge-grey, sludge-out. | |
Ending with "sludge": sewage-sludge. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "sludge"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | llum (dregs, dross, grounds, Lees, ooze, raff, ragtag, riffraff, scab, scum, scut, tails, vermin, wash), llucë (beastliness, mire, mud, muddiness, slime, slob, slop, slush), copra akulli të shkrifët, borë e shkrirë (sleet, slosh, slush, snow-broth). (various references) | |
Arabic | مياه المجاري (sewage), وحل لزج, طين (clay, daub, earth, loam, lute, luting, mire, muck, mud, ooze, point, silt, slime, slush), رسوب (sediment, subsidence), راسب طيني. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | утайка (crust, deposit, drains, dregs, faeces, feculence, grouts, offscourings, precipitate, precipitation, ragtag, residue, residuum, rinsings, sediment, warp), тънък плаващ лед, шлам (mud, pulp), киша (sleet, slosh, slush), мътилка, лапавица (sleet, slush). (various references) | |
Chinese | 烂泥. (various references) | |
Czech | splašky (dishwater, swill), kal (dregs, ooze, settlement, sewage, silt), bahno (morass, mud, ooze, quag, quagmire, wash). (various references) | |
Danish | slibeslam (silt, slime), slam (laitance, mud, silt, slime, slurry, turbid water), sjapis (slush), trub (bottoms, lees, trub), opslaemning, gylle (liquid manure, muck-slurry, semi-liquid manure, slurrey, slurry), forgæret slam (effluent, spent slurry), flydende staldgoedning (liquid manure, muck-slurry, semi-liquid manure, slurrey, slurry), agglutination (agglutination, baking, clustering, coking), agglomeration (agglomeration, conglomeration, urban concentration). (various references) | |
Dutch | slush (slush), slurry (influent, slurry), slijpslurrie (silt, slime), slijpslam (silt, slime), slibben, verdiept (sunk face), trub (trub), havendeel voor de kude, gier (liquid manure, muck-water, stale, turn, vulture), geul (furrow, wrinkle), effluent (effluent, spent slurry, warnambool), dunne mest (liquid manure, muck-slurry, semi-liquid manure, slurrey, slurry), drijfmest (liquid manure, muck-slurry, semi-liquid manure, slurrey, slurry), drab, bezinksel (base, bottom, bottoms, deposit, deposits, heel, lees, precipitate, sediment, tailings). (various references) | |
Farsi | پوسته یخ , کثیف شدن , لجن مال شدن , لجن (Lair, Mire, Mud, Silt, Slob, Slobber, Slop, Slosh, Slough, Slush), لای (In, Ooze, Sediment, Silt), جای کثیف ولجن الود, ادم شلخته . (various references) | |
Finnish | samea vesi (turbid water), sakka (deposit, dregs, grounds, precipitate, sediment), viinin sohjoutus, rupa (trub), pohjaussakka, mädäte (effluent, spent slurry), lumisohjo (slush), lietteet, liete (alluvium, silt), jäte (remnant, residue, waste), jääsohjo (slush), hiontaliete (silt, slime), aktiivimassan ylijäämä. (various references) | |
French | dépôt, boue (slime). (various references) | |
German | Schlamm (dirt, mire, mud, ooze, silt, silts, slime), Matsch (bad, capot, mud, mush, rotten, slobber, slush). (various references) | |
Greek | λάσπη (alluvium, cement, clay, mire, mortar, mud, ooze, puddle, silt, slab, slime, slosh). (various references) | |
Hebrew | בוץ שמ ו י, רפש (mire, mud, slime). (various references) | |
Hungarian | salak (cinder, clinker, dirt, dross, recrement, scale, scum, slag), iszap (dross, mud, ooze, paddle, posh, silt, slime, slob, slurry), vörösvérsejt-halmaz, savkátrány, savgyanta (acid sludge, acid tar, acid waste), sár (dirt, mess-up, mire, mud, ooze, slob, slobber, splash), olajüledék (crude oil, fuel oil), nyúlós sár, lerakódás (alluvium, bed, crust, foot, lodgement, lodgment, sediment, sedimentation, settlings, subsidence), híg sár (paddle), fúróiszap (drilling mud), csatornaiszap, üledék (bottoms, deposit, deposition, dreg, dregs, dross, emptyings, faeces, precipitate, precipitation, residual, residue, sediment, settlings, silt). (various references) | |
Indonesian | lumpur (mire, mud, ooze, slime, slosh, slush). (various references) | |
Italian | fecce (bottoms, lees), aggregato (aggregate), colaticcia (liquid manure, muck-slurry, semi-liquid manure, slurrey, slurry), concime semiliquido (liquid manure, muck-slurry, semi-liquid manure, slurrey, slurry), deposito di fognatura, fanghi (turbid water), fanghi effluenti (effluent, spent slurry), fanghiglia (slush), agglomerato (agglomerated, glomerated), fango abrasivo (silt, slime), torbido (cloudy, dark, indeterminate, muddy, opaque, sketchy, turbid), ghiaccio galleggiante frammisto a neve (slush), letto lasciati nel fango da un bastimento arenato, letto lasciati sulla sabbia, liquami (liquid manure, muck-slurry, semi-liquid manure, slurrey, slurry), liquami zootecnici (liquid manure, muck-slurry, semi-liquid manure, slurrey, slurry), liquiletame (liquid manure, muck-slurry, semi-liquid manure, slurrey, slurry), melma (mire, mud, ooze), purina (liquid manure, muck-slurry, purine, semi-liquid manure, slurrey, slurry), fango (dirt, mire, mud, slime, slosh, slush). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 軟泥 , ヘッディング開始 (chemical ooze, head, head coach, head piece, head sliding, head up, head voice, headgear, headhunter, head-hunting, heading, headlight, headlock, headphone, headspin, heavy, heavy metal, heavy smoker, hedonism, hetero, heterodox, heterogeneous, heterosis, recruiting professionals from other companies, slime, start of heading), 泥濘 (mire, mud, quagmire, slush), 沈渣 (dregs, sediment). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ヘドロ (chemical ooze, slime), な"でい, ぬかるみ (mire, mud, quagmire, slush), でいねい (mire, mud, quagmire, slush), ち"さ (dregs, grit, sediment). (various references) | |
Korean | 진창 (slush, slushy). (various references) | |
Manx | sluddaght, laagh vog, dreedyr. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | udgeslay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | lodo (clay, dirt, mud, ooze, slob, slush). (various references) | |
Russian | ил (clay, mud, ooze, silt, slime, slob). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | mulj (mud, ooze, silt, slime), blato (dirt, mire, mud, quagmire, slop, slops). (various references) | |
Spanish | lodo (dirt, mire, mud, ordure, slime). (various references) | |
Swedish | slam (dirt, mud, ooze, silt, slam, slime). (various references) | |
Thai | โคลน (mud, slop, slosh, slush), กาก (by-product, dregs, lees). (various references) | |
Turkish | sulu çamur (ooze, slosh, slush), yapış yapış çamur, vıcık vıcık çamur, parça parça deniz buzu, lâgım pisliği, kirli motor yağı. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | густа грязь, відстій (emptyings, residuum), осад (dregs, faeces, precipitate, residue, residuum, sediment, settling). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | nước rãnh, nước rác tảng băng rôi cặn dầu, cặn n"i hơi, bùn quánh nước cống, bùn đặc. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "sludge": sludges. (additional references) | |
| |
"Sludge" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: bludge, cludge, saluge, skudge, sledger, slodde, sludde, sluge, slugge, splodged, sudge, sulge. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-g-l-s-u" | |
-1 letter: duels, dulse, gelds, gleds, glued, glues, gudes, gules, leuds, ludes, luged, luges, slued. | |
-2 letters: dels, duel, dues, dugs, elds, geds, geld, gels, gled, glue, gude, guls, legs, leud, lude, lues, luge, lugs, sled, slue, slug, sued, used. | |
-3 letters: del, due, dug, eds, eld, els, ged, gel, gul, led, leg, leu, lug, seg, sel. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-e-g-l-s-u" | |
+1 letter: cudgels, deluges, guldens, kludges, sludges, slugged. | |
+2 letters: bludgers, divulges, gallused, guilders, indulges, sloughed, sludgier, slugabed, smuggled, snuggled, splurged. | |
+3 letters: amygdules, becudgels, bludgeons, cudgelers, delousing, dialogues, divulgers, duologues, eulogised, glandules, glucoside, groundsel, guildsmen, gulfweeds, indulgers, secluding, sludgiest, slugabeds, squiggled, squilgeed, struggled. | |
+4 letters: bugleweeds, decalogues, disgruntle, doodlebugs, euglenoids, gardenfuls, glucosides, groundless, groundsels, guidelines, idealogues, ideologues, languished, lifeguards, longitudes, mudslinger, scheduling, seguidilla, spurgalled, underlings, underslung, ungodliest, vulgarised. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
