Meaning of pure in English
Table of contents
Pronunciation
/pjʊr/US accent
UK accent
to browse different examples of pronunciation.Classifying Adjective
pureDefinitions
1. concerned with theory and data rather than practiceExamples
- « opposed to applied »
- « pure science »
Synonyms
- 2. free from discordant qualities
Synonyms
- 3. in a state of sexual virginity
Examples
- « pure and vestal modesty »
- « a spinster or virgin lady »
- « men have decreed that their women must be pure and virginal »
Synonyms
- 4. not mixed
Examples
- « pure oxygen »
Synonyms
Qualitative Adjective
pureEtymology
Middle English: from Old French pur‘pure’, from Latin purusDefinitions
1. free of extraneous elements of any kindExamples
- « pure air and water »
- « pure gold »
- « pure primary colors »
- « the violin's pure and lovely song »
- « pure tones »
Synonyms
- axenic
- clean
- fresh
- clean
- clear
- light
- unclouded
- fine
- f.
- native
- plain
- sheer
- unmingled
- unmixed
- pristine
- purified
- refined
- sublimate
- unadulterated
- unalloyed
- uncontaminated
- unpolluted
- virginal
Antonyms
- 2. (of color) being chromatically pure
Examples
- « not diluted with white or gray or black »
Synonyms
Antonyms
- 3. used of persons or behaviors
Examples
- « having no faults »
- « sinless »
- « I felt pure and sweet as a new baby- Sylvia Plath »
- « pure as the driven snow »
Synonyms
Antonyms
Famous quotes
- « That on a romantic level, if you feel it about somebody and it's pure, it means that they do too. » Sean Penn
- « There are certain persons for whom pure Truth is a poison. » Andre Maurois
- « Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted and pure love without power is destroyed. » Reinhold Niebuhr
- « Is art really the priesthood that demands the pure in heart who belong to it wholly? » Paul Cezanne
- « In a state therefore of great equality and virtue, where pure and simple manners prevailed, the increase of the human species would evidently be much greater than any increase that has been hitherto known. » Thomas Malthus