decontaminate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to make (an object or area) safe for unprotected personnel by removing, neutralizing, or destroying any harmful substance, as radioactive material or poisonous gas.
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to make free of contamination; purify.
to decontaminate a sickroom.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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decontaminatesimple
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decontaminatessimple
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have decontaminatedperfect
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has decontaminatedperfect
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am decontaminatingprogressive
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are decontaminatingprogressive
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is decontaminatingprogressive
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have been decontaminatingperfect progressive
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has been decontaminatingperfect progressive
Past
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decontaminatedsimple
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had decontaminatedperfect
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was decontaminatingprogressive
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were decontaminatingprogressive
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had been decontaminatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of decontaminate
First recorded in 1935–40; de- + contaminate
Explanation
To decontaminate is to clean something that's been poisoned or polluted. After last week's chemical spill, your chemist mom can't go back to the lab until they decontaminate the building. When something is contaminated, it's made unsafe for humans (and other living things) due to some kind of poison or impurity. Workers have to decontaminate, or remove the contamination, after a disaster at a nuclear reactor produces radioactivity. An oil spill in the ocean requires a different type of decontamination. Hospital cleaners also have to decontaminate areas where patients with infectious diseases have been, scrubbing surfaces and filtering the air.
Vocabulary lists containing decontaminate
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: de-
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Novel Study: Everything, Everything, Pages 1–121
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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.
The volunteers decontaminate once again before departing, leaving three gravediggers to cover it with soil.
From BBC • Jun. 17, 2026
An area near the site remained under a shelter-in-place order as emergency responders continued to monitor and decontaminate the hazards.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 22, 2026
Workers have complained of chemical burns from the waste material generated by the tunneling process, and firefighters must decontaminate their equipment after conducting rescues from the project sites.
From Salon • Oct. 12, 2025
That’s sent water treatment operators scrambling to find ways to decontaminate water supplies without breaking the bank.
From Science Magazine • Nov. 20, 2024
For morale purposes, Central Authority let it be known that they were able to decontaminate it, but what actually happened was that the spores lost their effectiveness within a few years of their original seeding.
From Shock Absorber by Dongen, H. R. van
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.
