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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
Evan Bush, NBC News, 6 Feb. 2025
Made with white clay sourced from the Amazon, this purifying mask helps suck up dirt, oil, and toxins that can clog pores, leaving your skin feeling fresh and smooth.
—Christa Joanna Lee, Allure, 4 Feb. 2025
After consuming a lot of excess food or drink, how many toxins does the body accumulate?
—Vicky Vera, Glamour, 24 Jan. 2025
Advertisement How can these toxins get into water systems?
—Jeanette Marantos, Los Angeles Times, 22 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for toxin 
Dictionary Entries Near toxin
Cite this Entry
“Toxin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/toxin. Accessed 11 Feb. 2025.
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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