Synonyms

pure

American

[pyoor] / pyʊər /

adjective

purer, purest

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 (applied ).

pure science.
without any discordant quality; clear and true.

pure tones in music.
absolute; utter; sheer.

to sing for pure joy.
being that and nothing else; mere.

a pure accident.
clean, spotless, or unsullied.

pure hands.
untainted with evil; innocent.

pure in heart.

Synonyms:

virtuous, modest
physically chaste; virgin.
ceremonially or ritually clean.
free of or without guilt; guiltless.
independent of sense or experience.

pure knowledge.
Biology, Genetics.
1. homozygous.
2. containing only one characteristic for a trait.
Phonetics. monophthongal.

pure British

/ pjʊə /

adjective

not mixed with any extraneous or dissimilar materials, elements, etc

pure nitrogen
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
1. (of a sound) composed of a single frequency without overtones
2. (of intervals in the system of just intonation) mathematically accurate in respect to the ratio of one frequency to another

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Related Words

See clean.

Other Word Forms

hyperpure adjective
hyperpurely adverb
hyperpureness noun
pureness noun
superpure adjective
unpure adjective
unpurely adverb
unpureness noun

Etymology

Origin of pure

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English pur, from Old French, from Latin pūrus “clean, unmixed, plain, 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.

Figures used to calculate this are different to the pure pre-tax loss.

From BBC

"We've shared breaking news, long shifts, plenty of laughter, bad hair days, and the occasional moment of pure chaos. And do you know what? I wouldn't change a second of it."

From BBC

Airo Group is exiting its electric air taxi business, a move an analyst believes makes it a “pure play drone exposure” company.

From Barron's

The aim is to be bustlingly kinetic, but the feel is pure kindergarten: no logic, just jerky leaps from one gaming situation to the next, with characters and objects taking on whatever powers are needed.

From The Wall Street Journal

There weren’t tears for me to wipe away, just pure mortification.

From Literature

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023