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Contents
pure definition
Overview
This page has 51 definitions of pure with English translations in 10 languages. Pure is an adjective, an adverb, verb, noun and conjunction. Examples of how to use pure in a sentence are shown. Also define these 0 related words and terms: .
English pure definition
Etymology 1
From Middle English pure, pur, from Old French pur, from Latin pūrus (“clean, free from dirt or filth, unmixed, plain”), from Proto-Indo-European *pewH- (“to cleanse, purify”). Displaced native Middle English lutter (“pure, clear, sincere”) (from Old English hlūtor, hluttor), Middle English skere (“pure, sheer, clear”) (from Old English scǣre and Old Norse skǣr), Middle English schir (“clear, pure”) (from Old English scīr), Middle English smete, smeate (“pure, refined”) (from Old English smǣte; compare Old English mǣre (“pure”)).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈpjʊə/, /ˈpjɔː/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈpjʊɹ/, /ˈpjɔɹ/
- (cure–nurse merger, rhotic) IPA(key): /ˈpjɝ/
- (cure–nurse merger, non-rhotic) IPA(key): /ˈpjɜː/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ), -ɔː(ɹ)
Adjective
pure (comparative purer or more pure, superlative purest or most pure)
- Free of flaws or imperfections; unsullied.
- 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 7, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323:
- Such was the origin of a friendship as warm and pure as any that ancient or modern history records.
- Free of foreign material or pollutants.
- 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726, OCLC 1325830848:
- A guinea is pure gold if it has in it no alloy.
- Free of immoral behavior or qualities; clean.
- c. 1530, William Tyndale (translator), Bible, 1 Timothy, 5:22,
- Laye hondes sodely[suddenly] on no man nether be partaker of other mes[men's] synnes: kepe thy silfe pure.
- c. 1530, William Tyndale (translator), Bible, 1 Timothy, 5:22,
- Mere; that and that only.
- That idea is pure madness!
- (of a branch of science) Done for its own sake instead of serving another branch of science.
- 2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8892:
- The [Isaac] Newton that emerges from the [unpublished] manuscripts is far from the popular image of a rational practitioner of cold and pure reason. The architect of modern science was himself not very modern. He was obsessed with alchemy.
- (phonetics) Of a single, simple sound or tone; said of some vowels and the unaspirated consonants.
- (of sound) Without harmonics or overtones; not harsh or discordant.
Synonyms
- (free of flaws): see Thesaurus:pure
- (free of foreign material): see Thesaurus:raw
- (free of immoral behavior): innocent
Antonyms
- (free of flaws): dirty, flawed, impure
- (free of foreign material): contaminated, impure
- (free of immoral behavior): corrupt, guilty, sinful
- (done for its own sake): applied
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Dictionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Adverb
pure (not comparable)
- (Liverpudlian, Scotland) to a great extent or degree; extremely; exceedingly.
- You’re pure busy.
- 1996, Trainspotting (film)
- I just get pure shy with the interview cats.
Translations
Verb
pure (third-person singular simple present pures, present participle puring, simple past and past participle pured)
- (golf) to hit (the ball) completely cleanly and accurately
- Tiger Woods pured his first drive straight down the middle of the fairway.
- (transitive, obsolete) To cleanse; to refine.
Noun
pure (countable and uncountable, plural pures)
- One who, or that which, is pure.
- 1845, The Lancet, page 187:
- ... the establishment of an inferior College, and the consequent connexion of the many thousands of British practitioners in medicine and surgery with a subordinate institution, and one that should be subservient to the government of the pures.
- c. 1870, D. K. Gavan, Rocky Road to Dublin:
- Took a drop of the pure, to keep my spirits from sinking, […]
- 1998, Christopher Leigh Connery, The Empire of the Text: Writing and Authority in Early Imperial China, Rowman & Littlefield (→ISBN), page 30:
- All interpretive frames will impose their categories on the object of historical analysis, and I am not proposing that this narrative of the "pures"; be rejected in favor of some phantasmatic framework that claims to derive more purely from the sources themselves. I will show in chapter 3 that, since the "pures" possibly did not even exist […]
- 1845, The Lancet, page 187:
Etymology 2
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /pjʊə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /pjʊɹ/
- Rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ)
Noun
pure (uncountable)
- Alternative form of puer (“dung (e.g. of dogs)”)
- 1851, H. Mayhew, London Labour and the London poor, vII. 142/1:
- […] Dogs'-dung is called ‘Pure’, from its cleansing and purifying properties.
- 2001, Wendy Lawton, The Tinker's Daughter, ch. 8:
- Mary smelled the rancid odor of the tannery on the right side of the road. […]
- "What is that, Mary?" Jake asked.
- "'Tis a bag for collecting pure. That is going to be your job, Jake. You are to collect pure."
- "Pure? What is pure?"
- "Pure is another word for dung," Mary answered.
- 2013, Terry Pratchett, Raising Steam, p. 28:
- […] surely there was something better for him than chasing the pure (footnote: A term, technically speaking, for dog muck, much prized by the tanneries.) […]
- 1851, H. Mayhew, London Labour and the London poor, vII. 142/1:
Further reading
- pure in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- pure in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
Anagrams
Danish pure definition
Etymology 1
From Latin pūre, the adverb of pūrus (“clean, pure”); or the definite form of pur (“pure”).
Pronunciation
Adjective
pure
- complete
- (adverbial) completely
Inflection
Inflection of pure | |||
---|---|---|---|
Positive | Comparative | Superlative | |
Common singular | pure | — | —2 |
Neuter singular | pure | — | —2 |
Plural | pure | — | —2 |
Definite attributive1 | pure | — | — |
1) When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding "indefinite" form is used. 2) The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively. |
Etymology 2
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Noun
pure c (singular definite pureen, plural indefinite pureer)
Inflection
Etymology 3
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Pronunciation
Adjective
pure
Esperanto pure definition
Adverb
pure
Finnish pure definition
Verb
pure
- inflection of purra:
Anagrams
French pure definition
Pronunciation
Adjective
pure
Anagrams
German pure definition
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Adjective
pure
- inflection of pur:
Italian pure definition
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Adjective
pure f pl
Etymology 2
From Latin pūrē, the adverb of pūrus.[1]
Adverb
pure
- too, also, as well
- Synonym: anche
- well, surely
- please, by all means
- if you like; if you want (etc.)
- Parli pure (with third-person subjunctive) ― let him speak if he likes
- Parla pure (with imperative) ― Speak if you like
- Lei parli pure (with formal subjunctive-imperative) ― Speak if you like
Conjunction
pure
References
- ^ Angelo Prati, "Vocabolario Etimologico Italiano", Torino, 1951; headword pure
Anagrams
Latin pure definition
Etymology 1
From pūrus (“clean; pure”) and -e (“-ly, -ily”).
Adverb
pūrē (comparative pūrius, superlative pūrissimē)
- clearly, brightly, cleanly
- correctly, faultlessly, perfectly, purely
- Loqui pure.
- To speak correctly.
- Loqui pure.
Synonyms
- (correctly): ēmendātē
Etymology 2
Noun
pūre
References
- “pure”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “pure”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
- (ambiguous) logic, dialectic: dialectica (-ae or -orum) (pure Latin disserendi ratio et scientia)
- (ambiguous) astronomy: astrologia (pure Latin sidera, caelestia)
- (ambiguous) logic, dialectic: dialectica (-ae or -orum) (pure Latin disserendi ratio et scientia)
Anagrams
Middle English pure definition
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Old French pur, from Latin pūrus.
Pronunciation
Adjective
pure (comparative purer, superlative purest)
- pure, unadulterated, undiluted, untarnished
- entire, total, all
- perfect, wonderful, unflawed
- morally clean, pure, or upstanding
- chaste
- true, real, genuine, not counterfeit
- clear, obvious, simple
Descendants
References
- “pūr(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-02.
Norwegian Bokmål pure definition
Noun
pure m (definite singular pureen, indefinite plural pureer, definite plural pureene)
- alternative spelling of puré
Norwegian Nynorsk pure definition
Etymology 1
Pronunciation
Noun
pure m (definite singular pureen, indefinite plural purear, definite plural pureane)
- alternative spelling of puré
Etymology 2
Pronunciation
Adjective
pure
Rapa Nui pure definition
Etymology
From Proto-Polynesian *pule.
Noun
pure
Swedish pure definition
Adjective
pure