Meaning & use
tainted
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Spoiled or made unsafe by a harmful substance or decay.
Grammar: Before a noun or after a verb: tainted meat; the water was tainted.
Patterns
- tainted by something
- tainted with something
The health officials warned people not to drink the tainted water.
Tainted blood supplies caused serious infections in the 1980s.
She threw out the tainted milk.
adjectivecomparablefigurative
Damaged in reputation or honor because of a connection to something wrong or shameful.
Grammar: Often followed by by or with: tainted by scandal.
Patterns
- tainted by something
- tainted with something
The mayor's career was tainted by a bribery scandal.
Many felt the election result was tainted by false claims.
The victory was tainted by suspicion of cheating.
Common combinations
- tainted by scandal
- The company's name was tainted by scandal.
- tainted evidence
- The judge threw out the tainted evidence.
- tainted food
- Tainted food made dozens of guests ill.
- tainted reputation
- His tainted reputation made it hard to find work.
- tainted with corruption
- The contract was tainted with corruption.
Synonyms and how they differ
- contaminated
- Contaminated is mainly physical or chemical, while tainted also works for reputations.
- spoiled
- Spoiled suggests natural decay, especially of food, and less often moral damage.
- tarnished
- Tarnished mostly describes reputations losing shine, not physical contamination.
- corrupted
- Corrupted suggests deeper moral damage or altered data than tainted.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: tainted or tinted?
tainted vs tinted
Tinted means lightly colored, as in tinted glass; tainted means spoiled or damaged.
Practice
Which sentence uses tainted figuratively?
Choose one answer.
Here tainted describes damaged honor, not physical spoilage. The other sentences describe contaminated food or water.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tainted”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.