# pure

Pronunciation: say "PYUUR" US /ˈpjʊɹ/, UK /pjʊə/; AUS say "PYOO-uh" /ˈpjʉːə/

## Adjective

1. Being nothing more than what is named; mere; sheer and unmixed with anything else.
   - Simple: Being only that and nothing else, completely and totally.
   - _Bumping into my old roommate at a tiny airport in Lisbon was pure chance._
   - _The supposed memoir turned out to be pure fiction._
2. Free of foreign material or contaminants; consisting of a single substance.
   - Simple: Clean, with no dirt or other substances mixed in.
   - _Chemists distilled the sample repeatedly until it was chemically pure._
   - _The jeweler confirmed the bar was pure gold, with no other metals mixed in._
3. Morally unblemished; untainted by wicked conduct or qualities.
   - Simple: Morally good, with no bad or selfish thoughts or actions.
   - _The monk strove to keep his thoughts pure and free of envy._
   - _Her motives were pure; she helped people without expecting anything in return._
4. Said of an animal or plant whose ancestry comes from one breed, strain or line alone, never crossed with another.
   - Simple: Describes an animal or plant that comes from just one breed or line, never mixed with others.
   - _Only pure Arabian horses may be entered in the breed show._
   - _Growers keep the strain pure by never planting it near other varieties of corn._
5. Free of flaws or imperfections; unspoiled and unblemished.
   - Simple: Perfect and clean, with no marks, flaws, or damage.
   - _The diamond was prized for its pure, flawless clarity._
   - _He admired the pure, unbroken lines of the old wooden boat._
6. Pursued for its own sake or for the sake of knowledge, rather than for practical application.
   - Simple: Studied to gain knowledge itself, not to solve a real-world problem.
   - _He moved from applied engineering into pure research, chasing questions with no immediate payoff._
   - _Pure mathematics studies abstract structures without concern for whether they describe anything real._
7. Without harmonics or overtones; clear and free of harshness or discord.
   - Simple: Having a clear sound with no extra tones mixed in and nothing harsh about it.
   - _A struck tuning fork sounds a remarkably pure tone, almost free of overtones._
   - _The choir blended into a single pure chord that filled the hall._
9. Of a vowel or consonant, having a single, simple sound.
   - Simple: Having one simple sound, like a vowel that does not slide into another.
   - _Phoneticians describe the Italian /e/ as a pure vowel, without the glide English speakers tend to add._
   - _Spanish has pure vowels, so 'no' ends on a steady 'o' with no English-style glide._
12. In Bermudian slang, a lot of; many or much, used before a noun. *(slang, Bermuda)*
   - Simple: In Bermuda slang, a lot of something.
   - _Me and my cousins used to play pure cards on the porch till late._
   - _She still had pure work to finish before the weekend._

## Noun

8. A person or thing that is free of impurity or moral fault.
   - Simple: A person who is good and free of wrong, or a thing that is clean and unmixed.
   - _Only the pure, the old legends claimed, could touch the sacred relic._
   - _She wrote of the pure as those left untouched by greed._

## Verb

10. Especially in golf, to strike the ball with perfectly clean contact and complete accuracy.
   - Simple: In golf, to hit the ball perfectly cleanly and exactly where you aim.
   - _On the final hole, he pured a seven-iron that stopped three feet from the pin._
   - _Tour pros seem to pure the ball on almost every swing, even under pressure._

## Adverb

11. To a great extent or degree, making the adjective that follows much stronger. *(dialectal, Scotland)*
   - Simple: Very or extremely, to a high degree.
   - _I was pure raging when the bus drove straight past the stop._
   - _The shops were pure packed on Saturday afternoon._

## Verb

13. To clean something, or to refine it by removing impurities. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To make something clean or purer by taking out what does not belong.

## Origin

Latin pūrus ("clean, free from dirt, unmixed, plain") goes back to the Proto-Indo-European root *pewH- ("to cleanse, purify"). It reached Middle English as pure by way of Old French pur. The word pushed aside several native Middle English words, such as lutter, skere, and schir.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/pure (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).