pure
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: note: pour–poor merger
ipa: /ˈpjʊə(ɹ)/
note: without the pour–poor merger
ipa: /ˈpjɔː(ɹ)/
ipa: /ˈpjʊɹ/
ipa: /ˈpjoɹ/
ipa: /ˈpjɚ/
ipa: /ˈpjʉːə/
ipa: /ˈpjoː/
ipa: /ˈpjuː(ə)ɹ/
ipa: /ˈpɪʊ(ə)ɹ/
ipa: /pjʉːɹ/
ipa: /pjuːɹ/
ipa: /ˈpɪʊə(ɹ)/
note: cure–fir merger, rhotic
ipa: /ˈpjɝ/
note: cure–fir merger, non-rhotic
ipa: /ˈpjɜː/
rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ)
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
Forms: form: purer
form: more pure
form: purest
form: most pure
Etymology: From Middle English pure, pur, from Old French pur, from Latin pūrus (“clean, free from dirt or filth, unmixed, plain”), from Proto-Indo-European *pewH- (“to cleanse, purify”). Displaced native Middle English lutter (“pure, clear, sincere”) (from Old English hlūtor, hluttor), Middle English skere (“pure, sheer, clear”) (from Old English scǣre and Old Norse skǣr), Middle English schir (“clear, pure”) (from Old English scīr), Middle English smete, smeate (“pure, refined”) (from Old English smǣte; compare Old English mǣre (“pure”)).
Senses: examples: text: Such was the origin of a friendship as warm and pure as any that ancient or modern history records.
ref: 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter VII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
glosses: Free of flaws or imperfections; unsullied.
examples: text: A guinea is pure gold if it has in it no alloy.
ref: 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726, →OCLC:
text: As for the rest, the air here is said to be purer than elsewhere in Ireland; the water of the Nore is beautifully transparent; and the bogless state of the land helps out the rhyme.
ref: 1837, Leitch Ritchie, Ireland Picturesque and Romantic, volume 1, page 225:
text: "Hetch Hetchy water is the purest, wholly unpolluted, and forever unpollutable."
ref: 1908 January 4, John Muir, “The Hetch Hetchy Valley”, in Sierra Club Bulletin, volume VI, number 4:
glosses: Free of foreign material or pollutants.
examples: text: Laye hondes sodenly on no man nether be part taker of wother mens synnes. Kepe thy silfe pure.
ref: 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, 1 Timothy v:[22], folio cclxxviij, recto:
glosses: Free of immoral behavior or qualities; clean.
examples: text: That idea is pure madness!
glosses: Mere; that and that only.
examples: text: The [Isaac] Newton that emerges from the [unpublished] manuscripts is far from the popular image of a rational practitioner of cold and pure reason. The architect of modern science was himself not very modern. He was obsessed with alchemy.
ref: 2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8892:
glosses: Done for its own sake instead of serving another branch of science.
raw_tags: of a branch of science
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
phonetics
phonology
sciences
glosses: Of a single, simple sound or tone; said of some vowels and the unaspirated consonants.
glosses: Without harmonics or overtones; not harsh or discordant.
raw_tags: of sound
examples: text: Well when ah's youngah, ah'd just light a candle rahn de dinna table play pure crazy 8s and spades vif my brotha til we lot dozed off...
ref: 2013 April 12, “Exclusive: Meet Derpuntae - Bermuda's first meme”, in The Bermuda Sun, archived from the original on 12 Dec 2022:
qualifier: Bermuda
glosses: A lot of.
Synonyms: sense: free of foreign material
word: raw
sense: free of immoral behavior
word: innocent
sense: free of immoral behavior
word: chaste
word: cherry
word: clean
word: flawless
word: halal
word: ideal
word: immaculate
word: kosher
word: natural
word: perfect
word: pristine
word: pure
word: simon-pure
word: unadulterated
word: uncontaminated
word: undefiled
word: unpolluted
word: unsullied
word: untainted
word: untouched
word: virgin
Hypernyms: word: preserved
Hyponyms: word: virtuous
Derived terms: as pure as the driven snow
enantiopure
fullblood
hyperpure
immunopure
nanopure
nonpure
pure air
pure and simple
pure as driven snow
pure as the driven snow
pureblood
pureblooded
pure blue
pure-bred
purebred
purebreed
pure cancer
pure collector
pure country
pure customer
pure democracy
pure ego
pure endowment
pure evil
pure finder
pure gatherer
pure good
pure-hearted
pure imaginary number
pure-impure
pure laine
pure land
pure mathematics
pure name
pureness
pure O
pureplay
pure-play
pure quartz
pure quill
pure salvage
pure science
pure sex
pure virtual function
pure virtual method
purey
radiopure
repure
semipure
simon-pure
stereopure
superpure
suprapure
ultrapure
ultra-pure
unpure
Related terms: purification
purify
purism
purist
puritan
puritanism
purity