Word.ws English Dictionary

contaminate

UK/kənˈtæmɪneɪt//kənˈtæmɪneɪt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

contaminate verb: to make something dangerous or toxic by introducing impurities or foreign matter.

Verb

contaminate (third-person singular simple present contaminates, present participle contaminating, simple past and past participle contaminated)

  1. (transitive) To make something dangerous or toxic by introducing impurities or foreign matter.
    • This water is contaminated. It isn't safe to drink.
    • Bombs and munitions meanwhile contain toxic substances that contaminate soil, water, and vegetation.2025 November 20, Simmone Shah, “Ukraine to Claim $44bn in Climate Damages From Russia. Why War Is So Bad For Emissions”, in TIME, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2025
    Synonyms:
    poison, pollute, taint
  2. (transitive) To soil, stain, corrupt, or infect by contact or association.
    • Shall we now
      Contaminate our figures with base bribes?1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • I would neither have simplicity imposed upon, nor virtue contaminated.1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    defile, pollute, sully, assoil, beclart, bedaub, bedirty, imbrue (especially with blood), bedizen, befile
  3. (transitive) To make unfit for use by the introduction of unwholesome or undesirable elements.
    • Do not contaminate the peanut butter with the jelly.
  4. (transitive) To infect, usually of a deadly virus.
    Synonyms:
    disease, leper

Adjective

contaminate (comparative more contaminate, superlative most contaminate)

  1. (obsolete) Contaminated.
    • And that this body conſecrate to thee,
      By Ruffian Luſt ſhould be contaminate!c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  2. (figuratively, obsolete) Dirty, sinful, wicked, gross, etc.

contaminate meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

contaminate in Tamil

அசுத்தமாக்கு, கறைப்படுத்து, கெடுத்துவிடு, சீர்கெடு, தூய்மை கெடு, மாசுபடுத்து

contaminate in Urdu

خراب کرنا

contaminate in Bengali

দূষিত করা, অপবিত্র করা

contaminate in Malayalam

മലിനമാക്കുക, കളങ്കപ്പെടുത്തുക, കലർത്തുക, ദുഷിപ്പിക്കുക

Examples of contaminate in a sentence

  • Steel shot, unlike lead shot, avoids contaminating the land with spent lead.
  • Forgetting to clear the sawdust around his workshop, Payton ended up contaminating the resin-ply matrix with wood particles during his hand layup.
  • “If we keep spewing CO₂ and contaminating our atmosphere, there won’t be much of it left.”

All 17 example sentences with contaminate

Synonyms of contaminate

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of contaminate

Forms of contaminate

Verb
third-person singular presentcontaminates
present participlecontaminating
past participlecontaminated
pastcontaminated
Adjective
comparativemore contaminate
superlativemost contaminate

Past tense of contaminate: contaminated

Origin of contaminate

First attested in the early 15ᵗʰ century, in Middle English; from Middle English contaminaten (“to defile; to infect with desease”), from contaminat(e) (“sullied, defiled; infected with desease”, also used as the past participle of contaminaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), from Latin contāminātus, the perfect passive participle of contāminō (“to touch together, blend, mingle, corrupt, defile”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), which see for further informations. More at taste, tax, and taxi.

First attested in the early 15ᵗʰ century, in Middle English; from Middle English contaminat(e) (“sullied, defiled; infected with desease”, also used as the past participle of contaminaten), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Participial usage up until Early Modern English.

Words formed from contaminate

Questions about contaminate

What does contaminate mean?
Contaminate means to make something dangerous or toxic by introducing impurities or foreign matter.
What is contaminate in Tamil?
Contaminate in Tamil is அசுத்தமாக்கு, கறைப்படுத்து, கெடுத்துவிடு. See Contaminate meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is contaminate?
Contaminate can be a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce contaminate?
Contaminate is pronounced /kənˈtæmɪneɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of contaminate?
The past tense of contaminate is contaminated.

Words near contaminate in the dictionary

  1. contakia
  2. contakion
  3. contaminable
  4. contaminant
  5. contaminants
  6. contaminate
  7. contaminated
  8. contaminates
  9. contaminating
  10. contamination
  11. contaminations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: contaminate (page history and authors); contaminate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); contaminate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Contaminate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); contaminate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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