contamination

Language: en

🇬🇧 /kəˌntæmɪˈneɪʃən/ 🇺🇸 /kəˌntæməˈneɪʃən/

📖 Definitions

  1. noun
    The act or process of making something impure, unclean, or harmful by introducing a foreign or undesirable substance.; The presence of an unwanted substance or impurity in a material, environment, or organism.; The introduction of radioactive material into an environment or onto a surface, especially in nuclear contexts.; The presence of microorganisms, such as bacteria or viruses, in a substance or environment where they are not desired.; The state of being morally or spiritually corrupted; defilement.; In forensic science, the introduction of foreign DNA or evidence into a sample, compromising its integrity.; In linguistics, the blending of two forms or words resulting in a hybrid form; also called contamination or crossbreeding.; In data science or statistics, the presence of erroneous or outlier data points that distort analysis results.

🔗 Details

Word forms

uncountable

Collocations

water contaminationsoil contaminationcross-contaminationrisk of contaminationprevent contaminationcontamination of food

Derivatives

contaminatecontaminantcontaminateddecontaminationdecontaminatecontaminative

Synonyms

pollutiontaintimpurityadulterationdefilementcorruption

Antonyms

purificationdecontaminationcleanliness

Commonly confused

contaminant
EN: 'Contaminant' is the substance that causes contamination; 'contamination' is the process or state of being contaminated.
pollution
EN: 'Pollution' typically refers to large-scale environmental contamination; 'contamination' can apply to any scale, including laboratory or food contexts.

Spelling tips

EN: Remember the sequence 'contam-i-nation' — do not drop the 'i' before 'nation'. Also note the single 'm' (not 'contamm-').

💬 Examples

  1. The contamination of the river with industrial waste made the water unsafe to drink.

  2. Tests revealed high levels of contamination in the soil near the factory.

  3. Workers were evacuated due to radioactive contamination in the reactor building.

  4. Strict sterilization protocols are necessary to prevent contamination of the surgical instruments.

  5. The preacher warned against the contamination of the soul by sinful thoughts.

  6. The defense attorney argued that contamination of the DNA evidence rendered it inadmissible.

  7. The word 'brunch' is a result of contamination between 'breakfast' and 'lunch'.

  8. The researcher removed several data points to reduce contamination in the dataset.