adulterated
adjective, verb
adulterated is spelled A-D-U-L-T-E-R-A-T-E-D: 11 letters and 5 syllables. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 58,714th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). 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…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in adulterated?
| Letters | 11: A-D-U-L-T-E-R-A-T-E-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 5 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 58,714th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is adulterated?
Adulterated appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 58,714th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce adulterated?
Adulterated has 5 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does adulterated mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 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).
Near-synonyms: laced, tainted, contaminated; see also Thesaurus:contaminated
verb
- 1
simple past and past participle of adulterate
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Adulterated in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense Translations:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | gepanscht |
| Spanish | adulterado |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does adulterated come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).