contaminant
Americannoun
-
contaminants
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of contaminant
1920–25; < Latin contāminant- (stem of contāmināns ), present participle of contāmināre. See contaminate, -ant
Vocabulary lists containing contaminant
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:
“In some ways it’s not a surprise, but the specific contaminant, cyclospora, is more unusual than E. coli and salmonella problems in leafy greens.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
While the L.A. city government hasn’t announced plans for soil testing, the Contaminant Level Evaluation and Analysis for Neighborhoods project at USC is offering free contaminant testing for Boyle Heights and East L.A. residents.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
He said the research shows “that contaminant levels on aircraft are generally low and that health and safety standards are met.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2025
Bowen also recommended reaching out to specific brands and asking them about contaminant levels in their products.
From Salon ● Jan. 14, 2025
Harvard’s Robert Chang—whose widely used Chang Liver Cell line was listed as a HeLa contaminant on Gartler’s chart —glared from his seat.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
She warned that climate change would make the situation worse as "more frequent and intense flooding... will bring these contaminants to the surface where they can spread over fields, they can get into water courses".
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
“Leafy greens have had many problems in the last decade with microbial contaminants, not just cyclospora,” said Felicia Wu, a professor of food safety at Michigan State University, in an email.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
Once in the proper gear, Adams recommends removing the top two inches of topsoil from gardens, where the highest concentration of contaminants will settle after a fire.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Martin said the department is also “deploying high-tech nanobubble ozone technology” to kill algae and other contaminants that “have long plagued the Reflecting Pool.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
Such materials, present as contaminants in water that also contains chemicals, may actually change the nature of the chemicals by the impact of ionizing radiation, rearranging their atoms in unpredictable ways to create new chemicals.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
