pure
Americanadjective
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free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind; free from extraneous matter.
pure gold;
pure water.
- Synonyms:
- immaculate, unstained, unalloyed, unadulterated, unmixed
-
unmodified by an admixture; simple or homogeneous.
-
of unmixed descent or ancestry.
a pure breed of dog.
-
free from foreign or inappropriate elements.
pure Attic Greek.
-
clear; free from blemishes.
pure skin.
-
(of literary style) straightforward; unaffected.
-
abstract or theoretical (opposed to applied).
pure science.
-
without any discordant quality; clear and true.
pure tones in music.
-
absolute; utter; sheer.
to sing for pure joy.
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being that and nothing else; mere.
a pure accident.
-
clean, spotless, or unsullied.
pure hands.
-
untainted with evil; innocent.
pure in heart.
-
physically chaste; virgin.
-
ceremonially or ritually clean.
-
free of or without guilt; guiltless.
-
independent of sense or experience.
pure knowledge.
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Biology, Genetics.
-
containing only one characteristic for a trait.
-
Phonetics. monophthongal.
adjective
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not mixed with any extraneous or dissimilar materials, elements, etc
pure nitrogen
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free from tainting or polluting matter; clean; wholesome
pure water
-
free from moral taint or defilement
pure love
-
(prenominal) (intensifier)
pure stupidity
a pure coincidence
-
(of a subject, etc) studied in its theoretical aspects rather than for its practical applications Compare applied
pure mathematics
pure science
-
(of a vowel) pronounced with more or less unvarying quality without any glide; monophthongal
-
(of a consonant) not accompanied by another consonant
-
of supposedly unmixed racial descent
-
genetics biology breeding true for one or more characteristics; homozygous
-
music
-
(of a sound) composed of a single frequency without overtones
-
(of intervals in the system of just intonation) mathematically accurate in respect to the ratio of one frequency to another
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Synonym Usage
See clean.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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hyperpurenessnoun
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purenessnoun
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unpurenessnoun
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hyperpureadjective
-
superpureadjective
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unpureadjective
-
hyperpurelyadverb
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unpurelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of pure
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English pur, from Old French, from Latin pūrus “clean, unmixed, plain, pure”
Explanation
The adjective pure describes something that's made of only one substance and is not mixed with anything else. For example, your favorite soft, warm winter scarf might be made from pure merino wool. Anything that's uncontaminated by extra, unnecessary, or unclean substances is pure. You can swim in pure water or wear a necklace that's made of pure silver. Pure can also mean "complete" or "absolute," especially when it describes happiness. A religious meaning of pure is "free from sin", good or wholesome. The Latin word purus, "clean or unmixed," is the root of pure.
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.
See Examples For:
The former was purpose-driven, with check boxes next to each book; the latter, pure fantasy that was much more inspirational than acquisitive.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
"The hydration breaks are pure advertising inventory. I'd be extremely surprised if they disappear. The expanded format will stay because scale is now Fifa's business model," says Laboure of Deutsche Bank Research.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
First she’s declarative, with pure tone and just Sullivan Fortner’s piano for accompaniment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
The metal is extracted from minerals and rocks such as bauxite and does not occur naturally in its pure form.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
Two weeks before, unforgettably terribly, there had been a unicorn foal, pure gold, stillborn.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
The Middle East supplies about a fifth of the world’s jet fuel, a form of kerosene that is purer and can withstand the freezing temperatures at cruise altitudes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
“This time, the move is happening despite substantial economic resilience and is a much purer reflection” of the increased risk investors associate with the dollar, “building on weakening confidence about the greenback,” they wrote.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 2, 2026
The purer and more ordered a semiconductor is, the better it works.
From BBC ● Dec. 30, 2025
But something else was drawing me back to Joyce, a need to breathe purer air.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2025
Above all, Faure had the confidence to turn his antipathy towards the many- layered complexity of Wagner’s music dramas into a much purer, emotionally restrained sound.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Music is perhaps the purest of these art forms, tapping into our lizard brains to regulate our emotions that are seeking to make sense of this precious yet maddening existence.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2026
It’s the purest demonstration of what it means to bring together subjective lived experience and academic knowledge.
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
"A stone of this colour and size is extremely scarce, and adding to its rarity the diamond is type Ia, amongst the purest of natural gems," it said.
From Barron's ● May 13, 2026
“It’s Rachel in her purest form,” she said of the new collection.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026
A look of sweetest, purest relief came over her face, even as she began to fade from sight.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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.
