adj., pur·er, pur·est.
- Having a homogeneous or uniform composition; not mixed: pure oxygen.
- Free from adulterants or impurities: pure chocolate.
- Free of dirt, defilement, or pollution: "A memory without blot or contamination must be . . . an inexhaustible source of pure refreshment" (Charlotte Brontë).
- Free of foreign elements.
- Containing nothing inappropriate or extraneous: a pure literary style.
- Complete; utter: pure folly.
- Having no faults; sinless: "I felt pure and sweet as a new baby" (Sylvia Plath).
- Chaste; virgin.
- Of unmixed blood or ancestry.
- Genetics. Produced by self-fertilization or continual inbreeding; homozygous: a pure line.
- Music. Free from discordant qualities: pure tones.
- Linguistics. Articulated with a single unchanging speech sound; monophthongal: a pure vowel.
- Theoretical: pure science.
- Philosophy. Free of empirical elements: pure reason.
[Middle English pur, from Old French, from Latin pūrus.]
purely pure'ly adv.pureness pure'ness n.
SYNONYMS pure, absolute, sheer, simple, unadulterated. These adjectives mean free of extraneous elements: pure gold; absolute oxygen; sheer alcohol; a simple substance; unadulterated coffee.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
