Toxic
adj ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Having a chemical nature that is harmful to health or lethal if consumed or otherwise entering into the body in sufficient quantities.
"Tobacco smoke contains many toxic substances."
- 2 Appearing grossly unwell; characterised by serious, potentially life-threatening compromise in the respiratory, circulatory or other body systems.
"The child appeared toxic on arrival at the hospital."
- 3 Severely negative or harmful. figuratively
"a toxic environment that promoted bullying"
- 4 Of a person, hateful or strongly antipathetic. figuratively
"It is not good to be around toxic people."
- 1 of or relating to or caused by a toxin or poison wordnet
Example
More examples"You shouldn't sleep with a coal stove on because it releases a very toxic gas called carbon monoxide. Sleeping with a coal stove running may result in death."
Etymology
Borrowed from French toxique, from Late Latin toxicus (“poisoned”), from Latin toxicum (“poison”), from Ancient Greek τοξικόν (toxikón) [φάρμακον (phármakon)] ("poison for use on arrows"), from τοξικός (toxikós, “pertaining to arrows or archery”), from τόξον (tóxon, “bow”).
Related phrases
More for "toxic"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.