purify

American  

[pyoor-uh-fahy] / ˈpjʊər əˌfaɪ /

verb (used with object)

• purifies,
  present (3rd person singular)
• purified,
  past participle,  past
• purifying
  present participle

1. to make pure; free from anything that debases, pollutes, adulterates, or contaminates.

   to purify metals.

2. to free from foreign, extraneous, or objectionable elements.

   to purify a language.

3. to free from guilt or evil.

4. to clear or purge (usually followed by of orfrom ).

5. to make clean for ceremonial or ritual use.

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verb (used without object)

• purifies,
  present (3rd person singular)
• purified,
  past participle,  past
• purifying
  present participle

1. to become pure.

purify British  

/ ˈpjʊərɪˌfaɪ /

verb

1. to free (something) of extraneous, contaminating, or debasing matter

2. (tr) to free (a person, etc) from sin or guilt

3. (tr) to make clean, as in a ritual, esp the churching of women after childbirth

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• purification
  noun
• purifier
  noun
• repurify
  verb
• nonpurifying
  adjective
• purificatory
  adjective
• self-purifying
  adjective
• unpurified
  adjective
• unpurifying
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• purifying
  present
• purified
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• purify
  simple
• purifies
  simple
• have purified
  perfect
• has purified
  perfect
• am purifying
  progressive
• are purifying
  progressive
• is purifying
  progressive
• have been purifying
  perfect progressive
• has been purifying
  perfect progressive

Past

• purified
  simple
• had purified
  perfect
• was purifying
  progressive
• were purifying
  progressive
• had been purifying
  perfect progressive

Future

• will purify
  simple
• will have purified
  perfect
• will be purifying
  progressive
• will have been purifying
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of purify

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English purifien, from Middle French purifier, from Latin pūrificāre; see pure, -ify

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Explanation

To purify something is to remove dirt, chemicals, or anything else that it's contaminated with. You might decide to purify your tap water if it tastes like chlorine. While scientists purify various chemicals during experiments, the substance that people most often purify is water. Water needs to be treated before it's safe to drink, and cities purify the water they send out to people's houses. You can also use the verb purify in a figurative way, to mean "make ritually or religiously clean or pure." This is the word's earliest meaning, from the Latin root purificare, "to make pure."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

purify purifies purified purifying

Studies after that conflict concluded the damage hampered efforts to purify water and contributed to infant mortality.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026

Ice masters look at the PH levels of the water and purify it to remove minerals and impurities.

From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2026

The punishments were made after a "systematic review" and were needed "to enforce industry discipline, purify the football environment, and maintain fair competition", the CFA wrote on its official social media account Thursday.

From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026

Beyond their unique biological properties, nanobodies are simpler to produce and purify than traditional antibodies.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2025

Mother, who had learned to give injections from a doctor in Jerusalem, took out the syringe and the needle she owned and boiled them for a long time to purify them.

From "Tasting the Sky" by Ibtisam Barakat

This patent-pending technology purifies the isotope by removing it from the bismuth target and then loads it onto a shipping column for incorporation into targeted alpha therapy drugs.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 11, 2025

A key supply item is a replacement pump for the system on the ISS that purifies urine back to drinking water.

From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2024

A massive sewage recycling program purifies wastewater through microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet irradiation, adding to drinking supply reservoirs.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 25, 2024

This process chemically separates the DNA from other components of cells within the sample, such as proteins, and purifies it.

From Scientific American ● Aug. 25, 2023

It purifies me, leaving me scoured both inside and out.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

While I claim no clairvoyant skills, given the ever-diminishing quality of the air we breathe, purified air could definitely become a commodity someday.

From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026

The Metropolitan Water District already is planning a large new facility in Carson to transform wastewater into purified drinking water.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 25, 2026

It’s a sprawling tale of divine corruption and human treachery that ends with the world being purified by fire and flood.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026

Dr. Dudek-Wicher also highlighted an important distinction between professionally produced, purified ClO₂ solutions, which are sometimes used in dentistry, and the mixtures prepared at home by MMS supporters.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 2, 2026

They would be purified and used over again.

From "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story" by Michael Collins

The bedroom will also be the focus of new ways of purifying air.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

Sartre argued that for the antisemite, “there is no question of building a new society, but only of purifying the one that exists.”

From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2025

The companies purifying water look like better bets than the high-tech customers who use it.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 9, 2025

To perform the analysis, the researchers used acetonitrile to extract PAHs before purifying the samples with several combinations of sorbents.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 1, 2025

That night, after a purifying coconut shampoo, Felicia was guided to a windowless room, where she sat for many hours, alone on a stool.

From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García

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