as in cleans
to remove dirty or dangerous substances (such as radioactive material) from (a person, thing, place, etc.)
Special workers were called in to decontaminate the area after the oil spill.
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for decontaminates
Verb
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Dish soap cleans more thoroughly in warm or hot water; to use less while washing dishes.—
Mary Marlowe Leverette,
The Spruce,
17 Feb. 2026 -
In 2024, Moshe Friedman, a local rabbi, filed a police complaint against six mohels who practice metzitzah b’peh, a custom in which the circumciser cleans the circumcision wound with oral suction.—
Philissa Cramer,
Sun Sentinel,
16 Feb. 2026
Verb
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But what the script sweeps under, Laurence Olivier’s performance brings back out to some extent.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
16 Feb. 2026
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Mysterious wave of bot traffic sweeps the web In recent weeks, websites large and small have seen dramatic spikes in visitors with IP addresses in Lanzhou, China — a manufacturing-heavy city that’s not known as a tech hub — with some of the visits routed through Singapore.—
Prashant Rao,
semafor.com,
16 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Unless a Nest user subscribes to a service that allows for quick access to review footage recorded on a device, Google routinely purges the footage rather than retain it indefinitely, said Stacey Higginbotham, a policy fellow at Consumer Reports who specializes in cybersecurity issues.—
Safiyah Riddle,
Chicago Tribune,
11 Feb. 2026
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Unless the Heat releases Terry Rozier or purges some other salary in a trade, Miami would not have enough space to sign a 15th player to a standard contract — and remain under the luxury tax line — until December.—
Barry Jackson,
Miami Herald,
9 Sep. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Decontaminates.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/decontaminates. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
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