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Toxins Are Often Found in Nature
Long before chemists started creating poisons from scratch, humans were employing natural toxins for killing weeds and insects. For centuries South American tribes have used the toxin curare, extracted from a native vine, to tip their arrows. The garden flower called wolfsbane or monkshood is the source of aconite, an extremely potent toxin. The common flower known as jimsonweed contains the deadly poison scopolamine. And the castor-oil plant yields the almost unbelievably poisonous toxin called ricin. Today we hear health advisers of all kinds talk about ridding the body of toxins; but they're usually pretty vague about which ones they mean, and most of these "toxins" wouldn't be called that by biologists.
Examples of toxin in a Sentence
Maria Berentzen, Vogue, 3 Apr. 2024
Water samples have also come up negative for Red Tide toxins.
—Aliza Chasan, CBS News, 1 Apr. 2024
Red tide toxins have not been detected in water samples either.
—Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 29 Mar. 2024
Believed to boost mood, relieve pain and rid the body of toxins, the mineral waters offer natural healing just steps from your room.
—Anna Haines, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2024
Scientists say the fermentation process can, however, produce unsafe levels of citrinin – a toxin that causes kidney dysfunction.
—Himari Semans, CNN, 28 Mar. 2024
Over 800,000 Americans have kidney failure and require dialysis, a procedure that filters toxins from the blood.
—Roni Caryn Rabin, New York Times, 21 Mar. 2024
The plant continued emitting toxins into the air and water and complaints began piling up about the mounds of coke piled up in Norwood’s backyard.
—Karl Schneider, The Indianapolis Star, 20 Mar. 2024
But these plastics also contain chemicals that can cause problems for both our bodies and the planet—exposure to these toxins has been linked to health problems including cancers, birth defects and endocrine system disruption.
—Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'toxin.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near toxin
Cite this Entry
“Toxin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/toxin. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
derived from Latin tox- "poisonous" and English -in "chemical compound"; tox- from toxicum "poison," from Greek toxikon "arrow poison," from toxon "bow, arrow" — related to intoxicate, toxic see Word History at intoxicate
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