pure

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   in a state of sexual virginity

   pure and vestal modesty

2. 2
   adj

   free of extraneous elements of any kind

   pure air and water

3. 3
   adj

   Free of flaws or imperfections; unsullied.

   Such was the origin of a friendship as warm and pure as any that ancient or modern history records.

4. 4
   adj

   Free of foreign material or pollutants.

   A guinea is pure gold if it has in it no alloy.

5. 5
   adj

   Free of immoral behavior or qualities; clean.

   Laye hondes sodenly on no man nether be part taker of wother mens synnes. Kepe thy silfe pure.

6. 6
   adj

   Mere; that and that only.

   That idea is pure madness!

7. 7
   adj

   Done for its own sake instead of serving another branch of science.

   The [Isaac] Newton that emerges from the [unpublished] manuscripts is far from the popular image of a rational practitioner of cold and pure reason.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.

8. 8
   adj

   Having no side effects.

   a pure method

Etymology

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”)).