Meaning & use
pesticide
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Meaning
nouncountable or uncountable
A chemical substance used to kill insects, weeds, or other organisms that damage crops.
Grammar: Can be countable (a pesticide, pesticides) or uncountable (pesticide in general).
Patterns
- use pesticide
- spray pesticide
- a pesticide for something
The farm uses fewer pesticides than it did ten years ago.
Pesticide can run off the fields into rivers.
This pesticide is designed to kill insects but not harm birds.
Word forms
| plural | pesticides |
|---|
Common combinations
- chemical pesticide
- Chemical pesticides are carefully controlled in many countries.
- pesticide use
- Pesticide use has increased in some regions.
- pesticide residue
- Washing fruit can reduce pesticide residue.
- spray pesticide
- Farmers spray pesticide on the crops to protect them.
- organic pesticide
- Organic farmers often use natural pesticides.
Synonyms and how they differ
- insecticide
- Insecticide only kills insects, while pesticide is a broader term that also includes weedkillers and fungicides.
- herbicide
- Herbicide specifically kills plants or weeds, not insects; pesticide is the general word.
- fungicide
- Fungicide targets fungi, whereas pesticide covers many kinds of harmful organisms.
Word family
- pest noun
- An animal or insect that harms crops or food.
- pesticidal adjective
- Having the effect of killing pests.
Commonly confused: pesticide or insecticide?
pesticide vs insecticide
Insecticide is a type of pesticide that only kills insects; using pesticide when you mean insecticide is too general.
Practice
Which word best completes the sentence? 'The farmer used a ___ to kill the weeds in the field.'
Choose one answer.
Weeds are plants, so a herbicide is the specific chemical for killing them. Pesticide is too general here, and insecticide and fungicide target insects and fungi, not weeds.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pesticide”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.