Adulterate Meaning
/əˈdʌltəɹət/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjCorrupted or made impure by being mixed with something else; adulterated.
adjTending to commit adultery; relating to or being the product of adultery; adulterous.
Sentence Examples
You should not adulterate wine with water.
to adulterate food, drink, drugs, coins, etc.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The dishonest company tried to ____ the olive oil by mixing it with cheaper vegetable oil.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It is illegal to ____ food products with harmful chemicals.
Word Origin & History
From Latin adulterātus (“adulterate, adulterated, defiled, polluted, counterfeited”), perfect passive participle of adulterō (“to adulterate, defile, commit adultery (with), counterfeit”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ad- (“to, in the direction of”) + alter (“other”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix), literally “to go after someone else”. Equivalent to adultery + -ate.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Theſe, and other like places in abundance through all thoſe ſhort Epiſtles, muſt either be adulterat, or elſe Ignatius [of Antioch] was not Ignatius, nor a Martyr, but moſt adulterate, and corrupt himſelf."
— 1641 June or July, John Milton, Of Prelatical Episcopacy, and Whether It may be Deduc’d from the Apostolical Times by Virtue of Those Testimonies which are Alledg’d to that Purpose in Some Late Treatises; […]; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume I, Amsterdam [actually London: s.n.], 1698, →OCLC, page 242:
"I am poſſeſt with an adulterate blot, / My bloud is mingled with the crime of luſt: [...]"
— c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 89, column 1:
"I [i.e., ay] that inceſtuous, that adulterate beaſt, / With witchcraft of his wits, with trayterous gifts, / O wicked wit, and giftes that haue the power / So to ſeduce; wonne to his ſhamefull luſt / The will of my moſt ſeeming vertuous Queene; [...]"
— c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:
"[C]urse the day / When first Spain's queen beheld the black-ey'd boy, / And gore-fac'd Treason sprung from her adulterate joy."
— 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto I”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, stanza XLVIII, page 32:
"For thus, that King violated that Oath which he ought moſt religiouſly to have ſworn to; but that he might not ſeem openly and publickly to violate it, he craftily adulterated and corrupted it; and leaſt he himſelf ſhould be accounted perjur'd, he turn'd the very Oath into a Perjury. [...] And who durſt pervert and adulterate that Law which he thought the only Obſtacle that ſtood in his way, and hindred him from perverting all the reſt of the Laws?"
— 1692, John Milton, chapter XII, in [Joseph Washington], transl., A Defence of the People of England, […]: In Answer to Salmasius’s Defence of the King, [London?]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 237:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The dishonest company tried to ____ the olive oil by mixing it with cheaper vegetable oil.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It is illegal to ____ food products with harmful chemicals.