contaminate
/kənˈtæmɪneɪt/verb
contaminate is spelled C-O-N-T-A-M-I-N-A-T-E. The wrong spelling people search most is contaiminate: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 36 of all searches for the word. Contaminate is a verb meaning “To make something dangerous or toxic by introducing impurities or foreign matter”.
How many letters and syllables are in contaminate?
| Letters | 11: C-O-N-T-A-M-I-N-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 35,748th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, contaiminate, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell contaminate?
Contaminate is spelled C-O-N-T-A-M-I-N-A-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 36 of the searches for contaminate in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is contaminate?
Contaminate appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th 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 contaminate?
- UK /kənˈtæmɪneɪt/
- US /kənˈtæmɪneɪt/
- US [kənˈtɛəm.ɪ.neɪt]
Contaminate has 4 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). Recordings: En-us-contaminate.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Simplificationalizer-contaminate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of contaminate
- contaminates present, singular, he/she/it
- contaminating participle, present
- contaminated participle, past
- more contaminate comparative
- most contaminate superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does contaminate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To make something dangerous or toxic by introducing impurities or foreign matter.
This water is contaminated. It isn't safe to drink.
- 2
To soil, stain, corrupt, or infect by contact or association.
- 3
To make unfit for use by the introduction of unwholesome or undesirable elements.
Do not contaminate the peanut butter with the jelly.
- 4
To infect, usually of a deadly virus.
adjective
- 1
obsoleteContaminated.
- 2
obsoleteDirty, sinful, wicked, gross, etc.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Contaminate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense To introduce impurities or foreign matter:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | contaminer, salir |
| German | verunreinigen, verseuchen, kontaminieren |
| Portuguese | contaminar |
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 contaminate come from?
First attested in the early 15ᵗʰ century, in Middle English; from Middle English contaminaten (“to defile; to infect with desease”), from contaminat(e) (“sullied, defiled; infected with desease”, also used as the past participle of contaminaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), from Latin contāminātus, the perfect passive participle of contāminō (“to touch together, blend, mingle, corrupt, defile”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), which see for further informations. More at taste, tax, and taxi.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).