From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcontaminantcon‧tam‧i‧nant /kənˈtæmɪnənt/ noun [countable] formal HCSGPa substance that makes something dirty environmental contaminants
Examples from the Corpus
contaminant• A hand-held chemical agent monitor determines whether any contaminants are still present.• Autopsies have identified at least 24 different contaminants in their bodies.• This enables contaminants, such as lead shot, to be directly identified.• Because of their stability, they are hard to dispose of and are persistent environmental contaminants.• We want to keep these fish alive here and in good health, and to keep their tissue clean from contaminants.• The effluent from paper making contains 10 to 100 times the amount of contaminants produced in the manufacture of polystyrene foam.• Table 8. 4 lists some typical ranges of contaminant levels found in used oils.• Disposal / re-use of these streams is dependent on both the level and type of contaminants present in the starting material. 