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Glite Dictionary
☠️ Poisonous quality 😡 Harmful behavior
toxicity

toxicity

4 5.9
Harmful or unfriendly behaviour in a group that makes people feel bad
  • noun
  • /tɒkˈsɪsɪti/
translation icon : toxicidad
  • The toxicity of the workplace made many employees feel uncomfortable and stressed.
  • the toxicity of local food

No gossip, no drama, no toxicity, just good vibes.

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Examples

  • It addressed the toxicity of a political culture in which despotism was the norm.

    Academic text (2011)

  • No gossip, no drama, no toxicity, just good vibes.

    High Performance

  • And this is, in my opinion, the the result of the toxicity that we live in.

  • And it's created a whole new set of toxicity, a whole new set of challenges.

  • It's just like weird state of toxicity that America especially is sitting in right now.

    André Duqum

  • So let's talk about toxicity a little more.

    Dr. Phil

  • I wonder if the descent into toxicity happens differently for women than it does for men.

  • At the end of the day, the show was always going to be hard, but that's no excuse for the toxicity that occurred in that writers room.

    Getting LOST (2024)

  • A symptom and outcome of that decade-long toxicity is the vitriol that recently surfaced on the Notebook site.

    Blog text (10)

  • It's important to address the toxicity within the team before it damages relationships.

Synonyms

harmfulness
vstoxicity
1 4.8

How much something can hurt people, animals, or things

focuses on harm in social groups rather than general risk or injury
toxic behavior
vstoxicity
  • US
1 5.8

Actions or words that hurt other people's feelings and damage relationships

is about the overall level of hostile behaviour in a group

Antonyms

positivity
17 3.6

Feeling hopeful and expecting a good result

supportiveness
1 3.2

Helping and encouraging others when they need it

How Toxic

toxicity
4 5.9
to abuse
  • NSFW
344 3.7
hostility
147 4.7
tension
509 3.2
unease
19 4.4

Surface Forms

toxicity singular
toxicities plural

Morphology

toxicity = toxic (semi-transparent) = toxic + ity

Formed from 'toxic' + '-ity' but the sense is metaphorical (harmful behaviour/atmosphere), so the extension from physical poison to social harm is not fully literal for all learners.

Etymology

Toxicity originally described real poison, from Greek toxikon meaning 'poison for arrows', and we now use the same idea for bad behaviour: harmful actions 'poison' a group. So toxicity can mean how harmful or hostile behaviour is in a team, forum, or workplace.