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toxin

noun

Simple meaning

A poison, especially one made by a living thing.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

tahksuhn

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈtɑksən

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. looselyusually proscribed

    Synonym of toxicant: a toxic substance in a body requiring removal.

  2. strictly

    A toxic substance, specifically a poison produced by the biological processes of organisms.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

This meaning: (loosely, usually proscribed) Synonym of toxicant: a toxic substance in a body requiring removal.

Used this way, toxin is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

botulinum toxindiphtheria toxincholera toxintetanus toxinpertussis toxinbacterial toxintoxin productiontoxin type

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • toxin antitoxinnounCompound term

    A mixture of toxin and antitoxin used to immunize against a disease.

  • botulinus toxinnounCompound term

    Potent bacterial toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum that causes botulism.

  • epsilon toxinnounCompound term

    A bacterial toxin produced by clostridium perfringens.

  • botulinum toxin anounCompound term

    A neurotoxin (trade name Botox) that is used clinically in small quantities to treat strabismus and facial spasms and other neurological disorders characterized by abnormal muscle…

  • bacterial toxinnounCompound term

    Any endotoxin or exotoxin formed in or elaborated by bacterial cells.

  • plant toxinnounCompound term

    Any substance produced by plants that is similar in its properties to extracellular bacterial toxin.

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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.