adulteration
AmericanUsage
What does adulteration mean? Adulteration is the act of making something impure or altering its original form by adding materials or elements that aren’t usually part of it, especially inferior ones. It can also refer to a thing that has been altered in such a way, or the state that that thing is in after having been altered. Adulteration is commonly used in the context of food preparation and manufacturing in reference to the contamination of food products with additives that make them impure in some way. There are laws against adulteration, especially when the ingredients added may be harmful to people’s health. Adulteration is the noun form of the verb adulterate, meaning to make something impure by adding inferior materials or elements. Something that has been altered in such a way can be described as adulterated. Example: They’re starting to crack down on the widespread adulteration of milk and dairy products by testing them for additives.
Etymology
Origin of adulteration
1500–10; < Latin adulterātiōn- (stem of adulterātiō ); see adulterate, -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.
The honour has cast a global spotlight on a fragile cottage industry battling labour shortages, rampant adulteration and dwindling sap supplies.
From Barron's • Feb. 10, 2026
The pesticide adulteration rate matched that of products from California’s legal market, which mandates screening for 66 pesticides but ignores scores of other compounds The Times found.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 19, 2024
A law preventing unadvertised adulteration was eventually passed in 1875 in the form of The Sale of Food and Drugs Act.
From BBC • Oct. 30, 2023
Standard detection methods of honey adulteration are expensive, and either have complicated operation methods or low detection accuracy.
From Science Daily • Oct. 10, 2023
There at least exists no temptation to adulteration or sophistication, or to shoddy work intended to sell but not to last.
From Household Administration Its Place in the Higher Education of Women by Various
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.
