This masculine noun denotes moral or ceremonial pollution and defilement. In 2 Corinthians 7:1, Paul urges believers to cleanse themselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. The multilingual glosses identify contamination and pollution (Spanish contaminación, French souillure, German Befleckung). The term belongs to the purity language central to both Jewish cultic thought and early Christian ethics, where moral and spiritual purity replaced ceremonial regulations while maintaining the underlying concepts of contamination and cleansing.