Toxicity: 

The degree to which a substance (a toxin or poison) can harm humans or

animals. Acute toxicity involves harmful effects in an organism through a single or short-term
exposure. Subchronic toxicity is the ability of a toxic substance to cause effects for more than
one year but less than the lifetime of the exposed organism. Chronic toxicity is the ability of a
substance or mixture of substances to cause harmful effects over an extended period, usually
upon repeated or continuous exposure, sometimes lasting for the entire life of the exposed
organism.
REFERENCE: Fauci, Anthony S., et al. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 17th ed.
United States: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2008.

Acute toxicity refers to those adverse effects occurring following oral or dermal administration
of a single dose of a substance, or multiple doses given within 24 hours, or an inhalation
exposure of 4 hours.

Chemicals can be allocated to one of five toxicity categories based on acute toxicity by the oral,
dermal or inhalation route according to the numeric criteria expressed as (approximate) LD50
(oral, dermal) or LC50 (inhalation) values are shown in the table below. Explanatory notes are
shown in italics following the table.

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/hesis/Documents/introtoxsubstances.pdf

Toxicity is the degree to which a substance can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to

the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on
a substructure of the organism, such as a cell (cytotoxicity) or an organ such as the liver
(hepatotoxicity).