-
- To save this word, you'll need to log in.
adulterant
noun
adul·ter·ant
ə-ˈdəl-t(ə-)rənt
: an adulterating substance or agent
adulterant
adjective
Synonyms
Examples of adulterant in a Sentence
concerned about adulterants in the town's water supply coming from the discharge from the factory
Recent Examples on the Web
The practice of adulterating honey is well known, and historically adulterants such as ash and potato flour have been used.
—Daniel Matthews, Fortune Europe, 5 Aug. 2024
This is a notorious adulterant of spices used to artificially bolster their color and weight.
—Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 9 Jan. 2024
The 2017 study highlighted the reason that lead chromate is used as an adulterant.
—Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 9 Jan. 2024
The street supply of most drugs is now contaminated with fentanyl, as well as xylazine, and many other deadly adulterants.
—Peter Grinspoon, Time, 23 Aug. 2023
Samples of about one-third of the medications were later tested at a laboratory with a mass spectrometer, which helped confirm initial results and identify other adulterants — including MDMA and caffeine.
—Connor Sheets, Los Angeles Times, 14 June 2023
But in Kensington, now the fentanyl supply has adulterants too.
—Samantha Guff, CNN, 7 Mar. 2023
That’s the way fentanyl has been found as an adulterant in many other drugs, helping to drive US overdose deaths to record highs.
—Samantha Guff, CNN, 7 Mar. 2023
The report found that heroin and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid far more powerful than heroin that increasingly has been added as an adulterant to street drugs, accounted for the vast majority of the nearly 1,600 deaths that have happened in suburban Cook County since 2016.
—John Keilman, chicagotribune.com, 19 Feb. 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'adulterant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
circa 1755, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near adulterant
Cite this Entry
“Adulterant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adulterant. Accessed 10 Oct. 2024.
Kids Definition
adulterant
noun
adul·ter·ant
ə-ˈdəl-tə-rənt
: something used to adulterate another thing
Medical Definition
adulterant
noun
adul·ter·ant
ə-ˈdəl-t(ə-)rənt
: an adulterating substance or agent
adulterant
adjective
More from Merriam-Webster on adulterant
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share