toxic
adjective
Simple meaning
Hateful or strongly antipathetic.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tahksikSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɑksɪk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
figurative
Of a person, hateful or strongly antipathetic.
figurative
Severely negative or harmful.
toxicologypharmacology
Having a chemical nature that is harmful to health or lethal if consumed or otherwise entering into the body in sufficient quantities.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Of a person, hateful or strongly antipathetic.
Used this way, toxic is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use toxic
- “Suffering from exposure to toxic substances.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The branch of pharmacology that deals with the nature and effects and treatments of poisons.
The degree to which something is poisonous.
Related to the branch of pharmacology that deals with the nature and effects and treatments of poisons.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A site where toxic wastes have been dumped and the Environmental Protection Agency has designated them to be cleaned up.
A location where toxic wastes can be or have been disposed of (often illegally).
A location where toxic wastes can be or have been disposed of (often illegally).
Poisonous waste materials.
The physiological state produced by a poison or other toxic substance.
A location where toxic wastes can be or have been disposed of (often illegally).
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Small Asiatic tree yielding a toxic exudate from which lacquer is obtained.
All parts of plant are highly toxic.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.