contamination.

The presence or introduction of something unwanted that compromises cleanliness, safety or the integrity of a material or process.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• biological contamination
• contamination of a sample

On the page

The crew suspected biological contamination and withheld a claim about the organism’s identity.

Contamination of a sample made its unusual result difficult to interpret.

Usage notes

Primary category: horror / sci-fi / gothic. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: hazard description, speculative setting, bodily condition, scene explanation. Disciplines: genre writing, science-informed description, clinical and safety vocabulary. Commonness: moderately common.