tainted
/ˈteɪntɪd/adjective, verb
tainted is spelled T-A-I-N-T-E-D: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 2.4 times per million words in written English, the 17,587th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, tainted means “Corrupted or filled with imperfections” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in tainted?
| Letters | 7: T-A-I-N-T-E-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.4 times per million words; the 17,587th 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 tainted?
Tainted appears 2.4 times per million words in written English, the 17,587th 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 tainted?
- /ˈteɪntɪd/
Tainted has 2 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-tainted.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of tainted
- more tainted comparative
- most tainted superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does tainted mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Corrupted or filled with imperfections.
Hey, get that away from me! It was bought with tainted money.
- 2
Originating from an untrusted source.
Near-synonyms: imperfect, faulty
verb
- 1
simple past and past participle of taint
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Tainted in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense corrupted or filled with imperfections:
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 tainted come from?
From taint + -ed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).