purification

American  

[pyoor-uh-fi-kay-shuhn] / pjʊər ə fɪˈkeɪ ʃən /

noun

• purifications
  plural

1. the act or process of making something pure and free of any contaminating, debasing, or foreign elements.

   We fund groundbreaking development projects like water purification and clean cookstove technology.

2. the act of making something free of guilt or evil.

   Purification of the soul brings freedom from hatred, selfishness, and greed.

3. the act or process of making something clean and fit for ceremonial or ritual use.

   At this early Shinto temple, the ceremonies consisted chiefly of ritual cleansings and purifications.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonpurification
  noun
• repurification
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• purifications
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of purification

First recorded in 1350–1400; from Latin pūrificātiōn-, stem of pūrificātiō “ritual cleansing”; see purify ( def. ), -ation ( def. )

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Explanation

Purification is the removal of impure elements from something. After purification, water is safe to drink. Most cities have a system of water purification, so people get clean fresh drinking water without any parasites or goldfish in it. Purification is when things are cleaned and made pure. Salt water must undergo purification before it's safe to drink. Some filters do a purification of the air to reduce allergens. In some religions, purification is the removal of sin, which is another type of cleansing. For example, sumo wrestlers throw salt in the ring for purification, as part of the tradition of the Shinto religion.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

purification purifications

"It might be in ethanol, co-generation, solar panels or water purification cells. Who knows? There are a lot of different options," he remarks.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

Instead, they combined microbial physiology, native enzyme purification, biochemistry and structural biology.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026

I’m scheduled to tour purification facilities, pipelines and compression stations that process the methane and transport it to markets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026

She noted that over 90% of homes lack such purification systems.

From Barron's ● Apr. 16, 2026

A shower then completed the whole body’s purification in readiness for prayer.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

One is an assay that would bypass laborious cell purifications and manipulations by detecting activated T cells in blood samples squirted into tubes premixed with bits of SARS-CoV-2 proteins.

From Scientific American ● May 19, 2022

He pacified his conscience by promising himself a compensatingly harder self-discipline, purifications the more complete and thorough.

From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

The purifications were multiplied; the Zend text was inundated with Pehlvi commentaries, often very inconsistent.

From Les Parsis by Ratanbai Ardeshir Vakil

According to Plato, it was an orphic doctrine that there were certain deliverances and purifications which availed also for the dead.

From Church and State as Seen in the Formation of Christendom by T. W. (Thomas William) Allies

My real body doubtless left me for other spheres, My voided body, nothing more to me, returning to the purifications, farther offices, eternal uses of the earth.”

From The Letters of Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman by Anne Burrows Gilchrist

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