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
ABC News, 16 June 2026
Raw or undercooked meat, fish, shellfish and eggs, along with unpasteurized milk, dairy and juices, are especially likely to be contaminated.
—Ryan Brennan, Kansas City Star, 16 June 2026
The product may also have been contaminated by Aspergillus mold, a fungus often found in soil that can cause a disease called aspergillosis, according to George Washington University.
—Julia Gomez, USA Today, 15 June 2026
Until the 1990s, the power company disposed of over 1 million tons of coal ash in an unlined storage area in Pines, later contaminating the groundwater that supplied the town of 700.
—Christiana Freitag, Chicago Tribune, 13 June 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 17 Jun. 2026.
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contaminate
verb
Medical Definition
contaminate
transitive verb
