adulterated

adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"adulterated" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“adulterated” is uncommon English (frequency #58,494 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#58,494
frequency rank, English
3,931
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Intentionally tainted with impurities (usually as motivated by cheapening the production of a food product or enhancing the psychotropic effects of a street drug).

Corpus desk

Index EN-adulterated · adulterated · English

adulterated · rank #58,494 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #58,494
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,931
  • PHOTO-FINISH adorably

Nearest frequency peer: adorably (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “adulterated”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “adulterated” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for adulterated
PropertyValue
Headwordadulterated
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters11
Frequency rank#58,494
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “adulterated” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).adulteratedfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “adorably” (#58,493), “airfoil” (#58,495), “Adela” (#58,492). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “adulterated” is #58,494. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

adulterated is uncommon English at frequency #58,494 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Intentionally tainted with impurities (usually as motivated by cheapening the production of a food product or enhancing the psychotropic effects of a street drug).".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for adulterated, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

Etymologically, the entry records: The adjectival sense's relation to adultery is the common theme that corruption or pollution has occurred; more at adulterate. By surface analysis, adulterate + -ed. The correct English form is adulterated, spelled A-D-U-L-T-E-R-A-T-E-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Intentionally tainted with impurities (usually as motivated by cheapening the production of a food product or enhancing the psychotropic effects of a street drug).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how adulterated appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Near-synonyms: laced, tainted, contaminated
  2. The problem of adulterated milk has periodically reemerged as a public health menace, from New York in the 1850s to China in 2008.

Etymology

The adjectival sense's relation to adultery is the common theme that corruption or pollution has occurred; more at adulterate. By surface analysis, adulterate + -ed.

This word in other languages

adulterado(Español)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "adulterated"?
"adulterated" is spelled A-D-U-L-T-E-R-A-T-E-D.
What does "adulterated" mean?
As an adjective, "adulterated" means: Intentionally tainted with impurities (usually as motivated by cheapening the production of a food product or enhancing the psychotropic effects of a street drug).
What is the origin of the word "adulterated"?
The adjectival sense's relation to adultery is the common theme that corruption or pollution has occurred; more at adulterate. By surface analysis, adulterate + -ed. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "adulterated", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Walthamstow#58,452uninstalled#58,435cannabinoid#58,581startlingly#58,387

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list