contamination
Americannoun
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the act of contaminating, or of making something impure or unsuitable by contact with something unclean, bad, etc.
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the act of contaminating, or of rendering something harmful or unusable by the addition of radioactive material.
the contamination of food following a nuclear attack.
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the state of being contaminated.
The manufacturer recalled the product because of possible salmonella contamination.
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Rare. something that contaminates a place or substance, as by making it impure, unsuitable, harmful, or unusable; a contaminant.
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Linguistics.
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an alternation in a linguistic form due to the influence of a related form, as the replacement in English of earlier femelle with female through the influence of male.
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the process of forming blends.
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noun
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the act or process of contaminating or the state of being contaminated
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something that contaminates
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linguistics the process by which one word or phrase is altered because of mistaken associations with another word or phrase; for example, the substitution of irregardless for regardless by association with such words as irrespective
Other Word Forms
- noncontamination noun
- recontamination noun
- self-contamination noun
Etymology
Origin of contamination
1375–1425; late Middle English contaminacioun < Late Latin contāminātiōn- (stem of contāminātiō ), equivalent to contāmināt ( us ) ( contaminate ) + -iōn- -ion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"It led to a wild goose chase of trying to figure out where this contamination could possibly have come from, because we just knew this number was far too high to be correct," Clough said.
From Science Daily
Compared to last year’s list, nectarines bested both peaches and cherries in pesticide contamination, increasing their ranking from seventh place to fifth.
From Salon
Opponents remain concerned, however, that the approach is invasive, and that there is a risk of accidental contamination and a potential false positive.
From BBC
This research is the first to clearly show how forests become contaminated with microplastics and to directly connect that contamination to particles transported through the air.
From Science Daily
Moma Foods has pulled some porridge pots and sachets from supermarket shelves and warned people not to eat them because of possible mouse contamination at a manufacturing site.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
