poison
Syllables: poi·sonUK/ˈpɔɪ.zən/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈpoj.zən/
poison noun: a substance that is harmful or lethal to a living organism when ingested.
Noun
poison (countable and uncountable, plural poisons)
- A substance that is harmful or lethal to a living organism when ingested.
- Near-synonym: (loosely) venom
- We used a poison to kill the weeds.
- Synonyms:
- atter, bane, contaminant, pollutant, toxin
- Anything harmful to a person or thing.
- Gossip is a malicious poison.
- Awaie with the Rebels ſuffer them not to ſpeake,
His words are poyſon in the eares of the people, […]1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act IV
- An alcoholic drink. (Mainly in the phrases "name your poison" and "what's your poison?")
- — What's your poison?
— I'll have a glass of whiskey.
- — What's your poison?
- Any substance that inhibits catalytic activity.
- The temperature effect of poisons. The influence of poison on the catalyst can be different with the change of reaction conditions.2013, Huazhang Liu, Ammonia Synthesis Catalysts: Innovation and Practice, page 693
Verb
poison (third-person singular simple present poisons, present participle poisoning, simple past and past participle poisoned)
- To use poison to kill or paralyse (somebody).
- The assassin poisoned the king.
- To pollute; to cause to become poisonous.
- That factory is poisoning the river.
- Synonyms:
- contaminate, pollute, taint
- To cause to become much worse.
- Suspicion will poison their relationship.
- He poisoned the mood in the room with his non-stop criticism.
- To cause (someone) to hate or to have unfair negative opinions.
- She's poisoned him against all his old friends.
- To inhibit the catalytic activity of.
- To place false or malicious data into (a cache, etc.) as part of an exploit.
- In this technique, the hacker poisons the cache to launch malware into Web pages.2013, Ronald L. Mendell, Investigating Information-based Crimes, page 93
poison meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
poison in Hindi
- substance harmful to a living organism
- बिस bis, विष viṣ, ज़हर zahar, हलाहल halāhal
poison in Tamil
- substance harmful to a living organism
- விடம் viṭam, நஞ்சு nañcu
poison in Marathi
- substance harmful to a living organism
- विष viṣ
poison in Urdu
- substance harmful to a living organism
- زَہْر zahr, ہَلاہَل halāhal
More languagesFewer languages
- poison in Bengali
- বিষ biś, জহর johor
- poison in Telugu
- విషము viṣamu
- poison in Malayalam
- വിഷം viṣaṁ, നച്ചം naccaṁ, തീമ്പ് tīmpŭ
- poison in Kannada
- ನಂಜು nañju, ವಿಷ viṣa
- poison in Punjabi
- زہر zahr, ਵਿੱਸ vissa, ਜ਼ਹਿਰ zahir, وس viss
- poison in Gujarati
- ઝેર jher
- poison in Odia
- ବିଷ, ବିଷ ଦେବା ପାଇଁ
- poison in Sanskrit
- विष viṣa
- poison in Sinhala
- වස wasa, විෂ wiṣa, විස wisa, වහ waha
- poison in Assamese
- বিহ bih
- poison in Nepali
- विष
- poison in Pashto
- زهر zahar
- poison in Tagalog
- lason
- poison in Arabic
- سُمّ summ, سَمّ samm, سَمَّمَ sammama, سَمَّ samma
- poison in Malay
- racun
- poison in Indonesian
- racun, bisa, meracuni
- poison in Persian
- زَهْر zahr
- poison in Thai
- พิษ pít, ยาพิษ yaa-pít, ยาเบื่อ yaa-bʉ̀ʉa, วางยา
- poison in Vietnamese
- chất độc, thuốc độc, độc
- poison in Myanmar
- အဆိပ် a.hcip
- Dhivehi
- ވިހަ viha
Examples of poison in a sentence
- The poison had been passed by the time of the autopsy.
- The migration of lead from a can to the food inside it can cause lead poisoning.
- She's in the camp that speaks as if all vaccines were poisons.
Synonyms of poison
Forms of poison
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | poisons |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | poisons |
| present participle | poisoning |
| past participle | poisoned |
| past | poisoned |
Origin of poison
From Middle English poysoun, poyson, pusoun, from Old French poison, poisun, from Latin pōtiōnem (“drink, a draught, a poisonous draught, a potion”), from pōtō (“to drink”). See also potion and potable (from the same root). Mostly displaced native Old English ātor and lybb. See more at atter.
Words formed from poison
- antipoison
- arrow poison
- arrow-poison frog
- berry poison
- box poison
- bullock poison
- bushman poison
- bushman's poison
- Champion Bay poison
- Circean poison
- cluster poison
- counterpoison
- crinkle-leaved poison
- crow poison
- dew poison
- Durban poison
- eastern poison ivy
- empoison
- fish poison tree
- Gilbernine poison
- granite poison
- heart-leaved poison
- Hill River poison
- Hook Point poison
- horned poison
- Hottentot's poison bush
- Hutt River poison
- impoison
- kite-leaved poison
- mallet poison
- Mount Ragged poison
- Myers' poison frog
- name one's poison
- narrow-leaved poison
- net-leaved poison
- neutron poison
- nuclear poison
- one man's fish is another man's poison
- one man's meat is another man's poison
- Phillips River poison
- pick your poison
- poison arrow
- poison arrow frog
- poison ash
- poison at the box office
- poison bean
- poisonberry
- poison book
- Poison Cross
- poison dart frog
- poison dart plant
- poison dogwood
- poisoner
- poisonful
- poison gas
- poison gland
- poison hemlock
- poisoning
- poison ivy
- poison-ivy
Phrases with poison
- poison nut
- poison oak
- poison pen
- rat poison
- poison nuts
- poison oaks
- poison pawn
- poison pens
- poison pill
- rock poison
- poison beans
- poison books
58 more phrasesFewer phrases
- poison gases
- poison ivies
- poison pawns
- poison pills
- poison queue
- poison sumac
- river poison
- Roe's poison
- spike poison
- poison arrows
- poison gasses
- poison glands
- poison queues
- poison sumacs
- poison taster
- runner poison
- wodjil poison
- woolly poison
- poison message
- poison parsley
- poison parsnip
- prickly poison
- slender poison
- spindle poison
- poison hemlocks
- poison messages
- poison the well
- sea poison tree
- sandplain poison
- sea poison trees
- white gum poison
- York Road poison
- fish poison trees
- poison dart frogs
- poison pen letter
- rigid-leaf poison
- wallflower poison
- what's yer poison
- golden poison frog
- named one's poison
- names one's poison
- poison arrow frogs
- poison pen letters
- western poison ivy
- western poison oak
- what's your poison
- naming one's poison
- thick-leaved poison
- western poison oaks
- Santander poison frog
- Stirling Range poison
- Santander poison frogs
- golden poison dart frog
- spot-legged poison frog
- golden poison arrow frog
- spot-legged poison frogs
- taste of one's own poison
- the dose makes the poison
Words that rhyme with poison
Questions about poison
- What does poison mean?
- Poison means a substance that is harmful or lethal to a living organism when ingested.
- What is poison in Hindi?
- Poison in Hindi is बिस (bis), विष (viṣ), ज़हर (zahar). See Poison meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is poison?
- Poison can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce poison?
- Poison is pronounced /ˈpɔɪ.zən/ (UK).
- What is the plural of poison?
- The plural of poison is poisons.
Words near poison in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: poison (page history and authors); زہر (Punjabi) (page history and authors); poison (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); poison (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-poison.ogg.
Cite this entry: “poison.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/poison. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.