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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

toxic.

Having a chemical nature that is harmful to health or lethal if consumed or otherwise entering into the body in sufficient quantities.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈtɒk.sɪk/UK/ˈtɑk.sɪk/cot-caught-merger
  1. Having a chemical nature that is harmful to health or lethal if consumed or otherwise entering into the body in sufficient quantities.

    Tobacco smoke contains many toxic substances.
  2. Appearing grossly unwell; characterised by serious, potentially life-threatening compromise in the respiratory, circulatory or other body systems.

    The child appeared toxic on arrival at the hospital.
  3. Severely negative or harmful.

    figuratively
    a toxic environment that promoted bullying
  4. Of a person, hateful or strongly antipathetic.

    figuratively
    It is not good to be around toxic people.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Undeterminedder.? Ancient Greek τόξον (tóxon) Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Hellenic *-kos Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) Ancient Greek -ῐκός (-ĭkós) Ancient Greek τοξῐκός (toxĭkós) Ancient Greek τοξικόν (toxikón)der. Latin toxicum Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Italic *-kos Latin -cus Latin toxicusbor. French toxiquebor. English toxic Borrowed from French toxique, from Late Latin toxicus (“poisoned”), from Latin toxicum (“poison”), from Ancient Greek τοξικόν (toxikón) [φάρμακον (phármakon)] ("poison for use on arrows"), from τοξικός (toxikós, “pertaining to arrows or archery”), from τόξον (tóxon, “bow”).

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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.