contaminated
v.v. made dirty, dangerous, or impure by adding something harmful like chemicals or bacteria. You use this to describe water, food, or soil that is no longer safe to use.
v. rendered impure, harmful, or unusable by the introduction of foreign substances or microorganisms. Often used in environmental, medical, or forensic contexts to describe the loss of integrity in a sample or resource.
The local well water is contaminated and unsafe to drink.
Health officials warned that the spinach might be contaminated with bacteria and should be returned to the store immediately.
The forensic team worried that the evidence had been contaminated by the first responders, potentially making the DNA results inadmissible during the upcoming trial.
Commonly followed by the preposition 'with' to identify the source of impurity.
The water was contaminated from chemicals.The water was contaminated with chemicals.While 'by' is possible in passive constructions, 'with' is the standard preposition used to name the specific substance that caused the impurity.