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Contaminated vs Infect - What's the difference?

contaminated | infect |

As verbs the difference between contaminated and infect

is that contaminated is (contaminate) while infect is to bring into contact with a substance that causes illness (a pathogen).

As adjectives the difference between contaminated and infect

is that contaminated is adulterated; impure while infect is (obsolete) infected.

contaminated

English

Verb

(head)
  • (contaminate)

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • adulterated; impure

    • Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "contaminated" is often applied: food, meat, fish, milk, water, groundwater, land, soil, sediment, site, property, air, product, material.

    infect

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To bring into contact with a substance that causes illness (a pathogen).
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Katie L. Burke
    • , title= In the News , volume=101, issue=3, page=193, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola.}}
  • To make somebody enthusiastic about one's own passion.

    • Antonyms

    * disinfect

    Derived terms

    * infection * infectible

    Related terms

    * infectious

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Infected.
  • * 1602 , , I. iii. 187:
    • And in the imitation of these twain, / Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns / With an imperial voice, many are infect .
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