contaminate
verb
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Contaminate, taint, pollute, and defile mean to make impure or unclean. Contaminate implies intrusion of or contact with dirt or foulness from an outside source (logically enough, it derives from the Latin word tangere, meaning "to touch"). Taint stresses a loss of purity or cleanliness that follows contact ("tainted meat"). Pollute, sometimes interchangeable with contaminate, may imply that the process which begins with contamination is complete and that what was pure or clean has been made foul, poisoned, or filthy ("the polluted waters of the river"). Defile implies befouling of what could or should have been kept clean and pure or held sacred, and commonly suggests violation or desecration ("vandals defiled the mausoleum").
Examples of contaminate in a Sentence
CBS News, 23 Mar. 2026
In the 1950s and 1960s, property owners would just put new tanks next to the old ones rather than pulling out tanks that might leak and contaminate the soil and potentially groundwater.
—Doug Ross, Chicago Tribune, 21 Mar. 2026
The Independence Police Department is searching for Barbie dolls that may have been contaminated with fentanyl before they were sold at a local discount store.
—Kendrick Calfee, Kansas City Star, 21 Mar. 2026
These compounds do not break down in the environment and can easily migrate into the air, dust, food and soil, also contaminating nearly half the drinking water in the United States.
—Kristen Rogers, CNN Money, 17 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for contaminate
Cite this Entry
“Contaminate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contaminate. Accessed 25 Mar. 2026.
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contaminate
verb
Medical Definition
contaminate
transitive verb
