impurity
Americannoun
-
the quality or state of being impure.
- Synonyms:
- taint, pollution, contamination
-
Often impurities. something that is or makes impure.
After the flood the authorities warned against impurities in the drinking water.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of impurity
1400–50; late Middle English impurite < Latin impūritās. See impure, -ity
Explanation
An impurity is something that ruins the uncontaminated nature of something. If someone accuses you of impurity, they think you or your nature has been spoiled in some way by sin. When water is pure, the only thing in that water is water. Add a contaminant, say salt or bleach, and you are introducing an impurity, something that turns the water impure. When used with people, the word has a religious overtone. Someone who is pure is unspoiled by sin. Think Snow White. If you convinced Snow White to rob a bank with you, you'd be spoiling her good nature with your wretched impurity.
Vocabulary lists containing impurity
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Impurity in a piece of meat sickens those who eat it.
From The Guardian • Jan. 27, 2018
How forceful then is the converse of the definition: Impurity weakens, impairs, and pollutes.
From Pushing to the Front by Marden, Orison Swett
Let every Impurity, animal and vegetable, be quickly removed to a distance from the habitation, such as slaughterhouses, pig-sties, cesspools, necessaries, and all other domestic nuisances.
From Enquire Within Upon Everything The Great Victorian Domestic Standby by Anonymous
There are three ways, I repeat, in which we may defile this temple, and the first I will venture to speak about is the sin of Impurity.
From Men in the Making by Shepherd, Ambrose
A constant worship of Purity, and a constant reprobation of Impurity as the rock on which the noble projects of the “blameless king” are wrecked, appear throughout upon the surface of the story.
From Tennyson and His Friends by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
