<p><strong>Noun:</strong></p><ul><li>the act of contaminating, or of making something impure or unsuitable by contact with something unclean, bad, etc.</li><li>the act of contaminating, or of rendering something harmful or unusable by the addition of radioactive material: the contamination of food following a nuclear attack</li><li>the state of being contaminated: The manufacturer recalled the product because of possible salmonella contamination</li><li>Rare: something that contaminates a place or substance, as by making it impure, unsuitable, harmful, or unusable; a contaminant</li><li>Linguistics: an alternation in a linguistic form due to the influence of a related form, as the replacement in English of earlier femelle with female through the influence of male</li><li>the process of forming blends</li></ul>