carcinogenic

adjective

car·​ci·​no·​gen·​ic ˌkär-sə-nō-ˈje-nik 

: producing or tending to produce cancer

a carcinogenic substance/compound/chemical

a chemical that has been found to have carcinogenic effects

Removing the carcinogenic mineral—used for years as a pipe and tank insulator—is a highly regulated process …

—Jefferson Kolle

carcinogenically

ˌkär-sə-nō-ˈje-ni-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

The plant derivatives … are less carcinogenically active than those from the fossil fuels.

—Peter Bernfeld

carcinogenicity

ˌkär-sə-nō-jə-ˈni-sə-tē 

noun

The scientist, Dr. Bruce Ames, of the University of California at Berkeley, was the developer of the most widely used rapid laboratory test … for detecting the probable carcinogenicity of chemicals.

—Philip M. Boffey

Did you know?

It sometimes seems as if the list of carcinogenic substances gets longer every day. A substance such as a food additive that's been in common use for years may unexpectedly show signs of being carcinogenic in laboratory experiments. When that happens, the suspected carcinogen will often have to be withdrawn from the market. When a building material like asbestos turns out to be a carcinogen, it may also have to be physically removed from buildings. English has hundreds of other scientific words ending in -genic (such as allergenic), and in almost all of them the ending means "causing".

Examples of carcinogenic in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

What To Know The lawsuit contends that the federal government, which owns and manages the Anacostia Riverbed, has been polluting the waterway since the 1800s, dumping toxic waste, heavy metals and carcinogenic chemicals like PCBs while neglecting cleanup efforts. —Daniel R. Depetris, Newsweek, 10 Jan. 2025

More than half of big US cities don't use chlorine, in part because free chlorine in water is highly reactive and has a short half-life and can interact with other substances to create harmful compounds thought to be carcinogenic. —Matthew Korfhage, Wired News, 16 May 2025

Green 1 and 2: Both banned in 1965 due to a potential link to cancer. Sudan 1 and Butter Yellow: Banned in 1919 after it was found to be toxic and potentially carcinogenic. —Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA Today, 24 Apr. 2025

Cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals—many of which are highly toxic and carcinogenic. —John W. Dean, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1916, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for carcinogenic

• angiogenic
• anthropogenic
• atherogenic
• cardiogenic
• embryogenic
• iatrogenic
• immunogenic
• metallogenic
• methanogenic
• nonpathogenic
• odontogenic
• osteogenic

Medical Definition

carcinogenic

adjective

car·​ci·​no·​gen·​ic ˌkärs-ᵊn-ō-ˈjen-ik 

: producing or tending to produce cancer

the carcinogenic action of certain chemicals

—The Journal of the American Medical Association

carcinogenically

-i-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

carcinogenicity

-jə-ˈnis-ət-ē 

noun

plural carcinogenicities