contaminate.
To make something dangerous or toxic by introducing impurities or foreign matter.
Meaning & usage
To make something dangerous or toxic by introducing impurities or foreign matter.
This water is contaminated. It isn't safe to drink.
To soil, stain, corrupt, or infect by contact or association.
To make unfit for use by the introduction of unwholesome or undesirable elements.
Do not contaminate the peanut butter with the jelly.
To infect, usually of a deadly virus.
Where this word comes from
First attested in the early 15ᵗʰ century, in Middle English; from Middle English contaminaten (“to defile; to infect with desease”), from contaminat(e) (“sullied, defiled; infected with desease”, also used as the past participle of contaminaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), from Latin contāminātus, the perfect passive participle of contāminō (“to touch together, blend, mingle, corrupt, defile”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), which see for further informations. More at taste, tax, and taxi.
Contaminated.
Dirty, sinful, wicked, gross, etc.
Where this word comes from
First attested in the early 15ᵗʰ century, in Middle English; from Middle English contaminat(e) (“sullied, defiled; infected with desease”, also used as the past participle of contaminaten), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Participial usage up until Early Modern English.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.