contamination

English

Etymology

From Latin contāminātiōnem.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kənˌtæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kənˌtæm.əˈneɪ.ʃən/, [kənˌɾ̃æm.əˈneɪ.ʃən]

  • Audio (New Jersey):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /kənˌtæm.ɪˈnæɪ.ʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

contamination (countable and uncountable, plural contaminations)

1. The act or process of contaminating.

   Synonyms: pollution, defilement, taint

2. Something which contaminates.
3. (linguistics) A process whereby words with related meanings come to have similar sounds.
4. (linguistics, etymology) The influence of one form (often from a foreign language) on the historical development of another form to which it may be related in meaning.
5. The process of making a material or surface unclean or unsuited for its intended purpose, usually by the addition or attachment of undesirable foreign substances.

Derived terms

• anticontamination
• biocontamination
• cross-contamination
• microcontamination
• noncontamination
• radiocontamination
• recontamination
• xenocontamination

 

Translations

the act or process of contaminating

• Bulgarian: замърсяване (bg) n (zamǎrsjavane)
• Catalan: contaminació (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 污染 (zh) (wūrǎn)

• Czech: znečištění n, kontaminace f
• Dutch: verontreiniging (nl) f, contaminatie (nl) f
• Esperanto: kontaminado, kontamino
• Finnish: saastuminen (fi), pilaantuminen (fi), saastuttaminen (fi)
• French: contamination (fr) f
• German: Verunreinigung (de) f; Verseuchung f, Kontamination (de) f (poison or pathogen)
• Hungarian: (act) szennyezés (hu), beszennyezés (hu), (process) szennyeződés (hu), beszennyeződés, elszennyeződés (hu), (state) szennyezettség (hu), kontamináció (hu), fertőzöttség (hu)
• Interlingua: contamination
• Italian: contaminazione (it)
• Japanese: 汚染 (ja) (おせん, osen), コンタミネーション (ja) (kontaminēshon)
• Luxembourgish: Verseuchung f, Kontaminatioun f
• Macedonian: загаду́вање n (zagadúvanje)
• Maltese: kontaminazzjoni f
• Mongolian: халдвар (mn) (xaldvar)
• Navajo: iʼniiyą́ą́ʼ
• Piedmontese: contaminassion f
• Polish: skażenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: contaminação (pt) f
• Romanian: contaminare (ro) f
• Russian: загрязне́ние (ru) n (zagrjaznénije)
• Scottish Gaelic: truailleadh m
• Spanish: contaminación (es) f

something which contaminates — see pollutant

a process whereby words with related meanings come to have similar sounds; blend, portmanteau (word) — see also portmanteau word

• Catalan: contaminació (ca) f
• Czech: kontaminace f
• Dutch: contaminatie (nl) f
• Finnish: sanasekauma
• Interlingua: contamination
• Japanese: コンタミネーション (ja) (kontaminēshon)
• Macedonian: контамина́ција f (kontaminácija)
• Polish: kontaminacja f
• Russian: контамина́ция (ru) f (kontaminácija)
• Ukrainian: контаміна́ція f (kontaminácija)

linguistics, etymology: the influence of one form (often from a foreign language) on the historical development of another form to which it may be related in meaning

• Dutch: contaminatie (nl) f
• Latvian: kontaminēšanās f, kontaminācija f
• Polish: kontaminacja f, adideacja (pl) f
• Ukrainian: контаміна́ція f (kontaminácija)

French

Etymology

From Latin contāminātiōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.ta.mi.na.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

contamination f (plural contaminations)

1. contamination (act or process of contaminating)

Related terms

• contaminer

Further reading

• “contamination”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.