purify
Americanverb (used with object)
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purifies,
present (3rd person singular)
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purified,
past participle, past
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purifying
present participle
-
to make pure; free from anything that debases, pollutes, adulterates, or contaminates.
to purify metals.
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to free from foreign, extraneous, or objectionable elements.
to purify a language.
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to free from guilt or evil.
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to clear or purge (usually followed by of orfrom ).
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to make clean for ceremonial or ritual use.
verb (used without object)
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purifies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
purified,
past participle, past
-
purifying
present participle
verb
-
to free (something) of extraneous, contaminating, or debasing matter
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(tr) to free (a person, etc) from sin or guilt
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(tr) to make clean, as in a ritual, esp the churching of women after childbirth
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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purificationnoun
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purifiernoun
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repurifyverb
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nonpurifyingadjective
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purificatoryadjective
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self-purifyingadjective
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unpurifiedadjective
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unpurifyingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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purifysimple
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purifiessimple
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have purifiedperfect
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has purifiedperfect
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am purifyingprogressive
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are purifyingprogressive
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is purifyingprogressive
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have been purifyingperfect progressive
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has been purifyingperfect progressive
Past
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purifiedsimple
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had purifiedperfect
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was purifyingprogressive
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were purifyingprogressive
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had been purifyingperfect progressive
Future
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."
Vocabulary lists containing purify
English Words Derived from French, List 2
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myPerspectives 9.6
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"Be Prepared" by Vera Brosgol
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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.
See Examples For:
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
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
Board of Water and Power Commissioners voted to purify 45 million gallons, enough water for 500,000 people.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2025
Stagecoaches to and from Philadelphia were stopped; postmasters used tongs to dip mail and newspapers from the city in vinegar and other substances they thought would purify them.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
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
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
Hidden under a newly paved parking lot next to a county courthouse, the wastewater treatment plant filters and purifies sewage and runoff simultaneously to produce water that exceeds state and federal drinking water regulations.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 18, 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
Technicians wearing bunny suits put the machines together in clean rooms pumped with purified air to prevent contamination.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 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
The prayer mg was spread by Wilfred while the rest of the family purified themselves.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
"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
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
She found in the outer court a beautiful lad in priestly attire intent on purifying the sacred place with water from a golden vessel, singing as he worked a hymn of praise to the god.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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.
