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, ˈpjʊərɪfɪˌkeɪtərɪ /

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

Etymology

Origin of purify

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

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

In such an environment, it is especially reckless to assume that war, no matter how justified, will somehow purify institutions rather than corrode them.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 5, 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

Researchers at the University of Iowa have identified a new way to "purify" photons, a development that could improve both the performance and security of light based quantum technologies.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 23, 2025

The team at Verley, a French startup, will then purify the protein, including extracting the lactose.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2025

Didn’t the señor know that salt water would purify the book and banish disease?

From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham

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

The company takes in shipments of refrigerators and tanks from around the country and beyond, drains them, then purifies and reclaims the chemicals, shipping out recycled product.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 13, 2023

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

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

To better understand how this system works, researchers recreated it outside living cells using purified components.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 20, 2026

It did so, nominating thousands of ingredients, including, for example, purified water and asparagus.

From Salon ● Apr. 4, 2026

Some bottlers sell tap water purified through reverse‑osmosis filtration which removes the minerals and flavour, he said.

From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026

Over and over again the liquid had to be strained and purified, even as it kept boiling, boiling, boiling in the copper vats.

From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson

Separating and purifying the elements from mineral deposits often requires toxic chemicals, while radioactive substances are frequently present in the same geological formations.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 24, 2026

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

"The feeling is that VAR has complicated the game, instead of purifying it," Balague added.

From BBC ● Feb. 18, 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

He stuffed the purifying herbs and birch-bast wrapping into the neck of his parka, and looked down at what Renn had made for him in the night.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

Related Words

• rarefy