To chlorinate something is to add chlorine to it, or to treat it with chlorine, usually to kill germs. Towns chlorinate drinking water; pools are chlorinated so people do not share infections. The water may smell a little of bleach afterwards. Factories can chlorinate other materials too, but the picture learners meet first is water. The adjective is chlorinated — chlorinated water — and the noun for the process is chlorination. It is a practical, slightly technical verb. On a tap in Taiwan you might just notice a faint sharp smell, not say this water was chlorinated. Though actually, you do not dump a cloud of chlorine gas into a glass. Plants use measured chemicals, and the amount has to be high enough to kill bacteria but low enough to be safe to drink or swim in. Chlorinated tap water is not the same as breathing chlorine gas, and it is not a glass of swimming-pool water.