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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of contamination
1375–1425; late Middle English contaminacioun < Late Latin contāminātiōn- (stem of contāminātiō ), equivalent to contāmināt ( us ) ( see contaminate) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
Contamination is the unwanted pollution of something by another substance. When a nuclear power plant leaks radiation into the atmosphere, for example, it causes a contamination of the surrounding area. Contamination can also be used to refer to abstract ideas and concepts rather than to just physical things. The French complain that the increasing adoption of English words is a contamination of their linguistic heritage, and many parents today think rap music is a contamination of the public culture.
Vocabulary lists containing contamination
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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.
See Examples For:
If you unwittingly order something with iceberg lettuce on it, such as a burger, physically removing the lettuce will reduce the risk of contamination, Shumaker said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Other transgressions there included urine contamination from rodents on food packaging and shelving, inadequate cleaning standards and structural defects allowing pest entry.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Practicing proper hand washing and washing all fresh produce under clean running water are also key, although they don’t eliminate the risk of contamination completely.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
Critics point to a quilt-like pattern of toxins, rather than widespread contamination, as evidence that the lead was likely present before the Eaton fires and could be treated with less urgency.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2026
He started reading news reports about HeLa cells and the contamination problem and realized it would make a great story for Rolling Stone—the perfect mix of science and human interest.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
Nephew said if time was short, the U.S. could also seek to dilute the material on-site by mixing it with natural uranium or destroy it, although that could cause chemical contaminations in the area.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 15, 2026
"Right now, the industry does their best to reduce those risks, but you will hear about outbreaks of these contaminations and people getting sick. There are sometimes reported deaths because of these events."
From Science Daily ● Mar. 1, 2024
“We had a jump in contaminations since the beginning of January, tripling the number of people infected,” Pazuello said Tuesday.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 27, 2021
She also said the number of contaminations were roughly in line with the figures for 2015 and 2016.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2018
Also during his student years he kept himself unspotted from the moral contaminations of the academic life.
From Luther Examined and Reexamined A Review of Catholic Criticism and a Plea for Revaluation by Dau, W. H. T. (William Herman Theodore)
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.
