Did you know?
Toxins Are Often Found in Nature
Long before chemists started creating poisons from scratch, humans were employing natural toxins for killing weeds and insects. For centuries South American tribes have used the toxin curare, extracted from a native vine, to tip their arrows. The garden flower called wolfsbane or monkshood is the source of aconite, an extremely potent toxin. The common flower known as jimsonweed contains the deadly poison scopolamine. And the castor-oil plant yields the almost unbelievably poisonous toxin called ricin. Today we hear health advisers of all kinds talk about ridding the body of toxins; but they're usually pretty vague about which ones they mean, and most of these "toxins" wouldn't be called that by biologists.
Examples of toxin in a Sentence
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA Today, 17 June 2025
Air Pollution and Airborne Toxins Inhaling pollutants and toxins, like smoke and exhaust, can cause brown mucus.4
Brown mucus can also develop due to inhaling certain toxins at work.
—Mark Gurarie, Health, 15 June 2025
The study doesn't, however, prove causation – but this link adds to the growing body of evidence that such bitter taste receptors have more complex biological impacts than simply helping hunter-gatherer humans avoid potential plant toxins.
—Bronwyn Thompson, New Atlas, 15 June 2025
By the time Colton’s mother brought him to the emergency room that November day, the bacteria were releasing toxins and damaging his blood cells and kidneys, according to his father, Chris George.
—Stephanie Armour, Miami Herald, 29 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for toxin
Cite this Entry
“Toxin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/toxin. Accessed 1 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
derived from Latin tox- "poisonous" and English -in "chemical compound"; tox- from toxicum "poison," from Greek toxikon "arrow poison," from toxon "bow, arrow" — related to intoxicate, toxic see Word History at intoxicate
Share