Toxin meaning

tŏk'sĭn
A poisonous substance, especially a protein, that is produced by living cells or organisms and is capable of causing disease when introduced into the body tissues but is often also capable of inducing neutralizing antibodies or antitoxins.
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A poisonous or harmful nonbiological substance, such as a pollutant.
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Any of various poisonous compounds produced by some microorganisms and causing certain diseases.
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Any of various similar poisons, related to proteins, formed in certain plants, as ricin, or secreted by certain animals, as snake venom: toxins, when injected into animals or humans, typically initiate the formation of antitoxins.
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A poisonous or harmful nonbiological substance, such as a pollutant.
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A poisonous substance, especially one produced by a living organism. Toxins can be products or byproducts of ordinary metabolism, such as lactic acid, and they must be broken down or excreted before building up to dangerous levels. Toxins can facilitate survival, as with snake venom that kills or immobilizes prey, or cyanide produced by some plants as a defense against being eaten. Bacterial toxins can sometimes be neutralized with antitoxins.
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A toxic or poisonous substance produced by the biological processes of biological organisms.
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A poisonous substance, especially a protein, that is produced by living cells or organisms and is capable of causing disease when introduced into the body tissues but is often also capable of inducing neutralizing antibodies or antitoxins.
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Origin of toxin

  • Latin toxicum.
    From Wiktionary

Toxin Sentence Examples

  • applies only to the bacterium or toxin used in its production.

  • In the earlier experiments on smaller animals the potency of the toxin was modified for the first injections, but in preparing antitoxin for therapeutical purposes the toxin is used in its unaltered condition, the horse being the animal usually employed.

  • Then we have the property of adaptation, in which the negative reaction may be changed into a positive; a given toxin may at first repel the cell, but by a gradual process the cell becomes accustomed to such a toxin and will move towards it.

  • By growing this bacillus in broth a toxin is formed which remains in solution and can be separated from the bacilli themselves by filtration.

  • Of such are tetanus and diphtheria, now known to be due to the establishment from without of a local microbic infection, from which focus a toxin is diffused to the nervous matter.

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