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Glite Dictionary
adulteration

adulteration

1 7.7
Making food or medicine worse by adding something else
  • noun
  • /əˌdʌltəˈreɪʃən/
  • Specialized
translation icon : adulteración
  • Regulatory agencies work hard to prevent the adulteration of pharmaceuticals to ensure public safety.
  • fuel adulteration

Examples

  • The sticking point for the Supreme Court in the debate on clean fuels was pervasive fuel adulteration.

    Academic text (2005)

  • In India, an on-the-ground, realistic appraisal of the situation led EPCA and the court to conclude that fuel adulteration was almost unavoidable.

    Academic text (2005)

  • But the court had evidence that fuel adulteration was rampant and politically impossible to check.

    Academic text (2005)

  • When the labs reported no adulteration, the technical difficulties of assuring that clean fuel would stay clean had been clearly demonstrated.

    Academic text (2005)

  • Thus, he thought it proper for the government to intervene to prevent the adulteration of products or to assure the health and safety of workers in dangerous industries.

    Academic text (1993)

  • An untraceable number of deaths and illnesses were related to adulteration or food poisoning (a fact that spurred the creation of the Food and Drug Administration in 1906) (Goodwin).

    Academic text (2014)

  • The adulteration of food products can lead to serious health risks for consumers.

  • Consumers should be aware of the adulteration of spices, which can significantly reduce their quality and flavor.

Synonyms

bastardization
vsadulteration
3 9.3

Making something worse by adding bad parts or changing it

focuses only on impurity by adding a substance, not on changing original form
debasement
vsadulteration
3 7.4

Making something less pure or valuable by adding bad material

describes only the act of making something impure by adding another substance

Antonyms

purification
15 4.6

Making something clean by removing unwanted or harmful substances

How Impure

poisoning
  • Specialized
144 3.9
contamination
  • Specialized
76 4.8
adulteration
  • Specialized
1 7.7
dilution
  • Specialized
11 4.4

Surface Forms

adulteration singular
adulterations plural

Morphology

adulteration = adulterate (transparent) = adulterate + ion

Derived directly from the verb 'adulterate' with the nominalizing suffix '-ion', so the meaning 'the act of making impure' is straightforward.

Etymology

The word adulteration comes from the old Latin verb adulterare, built from ad- and alter meaning 'other', like in the English word alter, so a helpful image is adding an 'other' thing into something. That's why adulteration means making a product poorer or impure by mixing in another substance.