contaminate vs alter

contaminate and alter both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
contaminate	No	No	Yes	No
alter	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, alter is a hypernym of contaminate; that is, alter is a word with a broader meaning than contaminate:

Other hypernyms of contaminate include change, modify.

contaminate (verb)	alter (verb)
make impure	remove the ovaries of
make radioactive by adding radioactive material	become different in some particular way, without permanently losing one's or its former characteristics or essence
	cause to change; make different; cause a transformation
	insert words into texts, often falsifying it thereby
	make an alteration to