1,400 new words in our dictionary! — Parasocial, glow-up, promposal & more
1,400 new words in our dictionary! — More

decontaminates

verb

present tense third-person singular of decontaminate
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.

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for decontaminates
  1. cleans
  2. sweeps
  3. purges
Verb
  • Aside from SealForce, the Roomba Max 875 cleans with an impressive 35,000 Pascals of suction and 20 liters per second of airflow.
    — Andrew Gebhart, PC Magazine, 5 Sep. 2026
  • The winery also has solar panels that generate about 100,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, more than enough to cover its energy needs, along with heat pumps and a system that cleans and reuses wastewater.
    — Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of cleans
Verb
  • The Pitt and Widow’s Bay finally capped off their awards sweeps for the night, foregone conclusions by that point.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Intimate and immersive, the film sweeps across four years and a dozen countries.
    — Matthew Carey, Deadline, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of sweeps
Verb
  • Haugh lets out the occasional wince, twitch and groan as Patterson kneads knotted muscles and purges lactic acid build-up so Florida’s leading scorer and ironman can continue to shoulder his heavy workload.
    — Edgar Thompson, The Orlando Sentinel, 18 Mar. 2026
  • 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
Definition of purges
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

decontaminated
decontaminates
decontaminating
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Decontaminates.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/decontaminates. Accessed 18 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of churlish

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary

Words from the 'Odyssey'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Sept. 18
See More

Popular

See More

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
crayons-in-a-circle
Guess the Color Quiz Questions that use the whole box of crayons.
See All