purity


Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Related to purity: philosophy

pu·ri·ty

 (pyo͝or′ĭ-tē)
n.
1. The quality or condition of being pure: the purity of the drug.
2. Freedom from spiritual or moral defilement; innocence or chastity: "Teach your children ... the belief in purity of body, mind and soul" (Emmeline Pankhurst).
3. The degree to which a color is free from being mixed with other colors.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

purity

(ˈpjʊərɪtɪ)
n
1. the state or quality of being pure
2. (Colours) physics a measure of the amount of a single-frequency colour in a mixture of spectral and achromatic colours
3. (General Physics) physics a measure of the amount of a single-frequency colour in a mixture of spectral and achromatic colours
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

pu•ri•ty

(ˈpyʊər ɪ ti)

n.
1. the condition or quality of being pure; freedom from anything that contaminates, pollutes, etc.
2. freedom from any admixture or modifying addition.
3. cleanness.
4. freedom from guilt or evil; innocence.
5. freedom from foreign or inappropriate elements; careful correctness: purity of expression.
6. the chroma, saturation, or degree of freedom from white of a given color.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

Purity

 

See Also: VIRTUE

  1. Incapable of taint as gold of rust —Aeschylus
  2. Pure and white as Rainier’s snows —Slogan, Mills flour
  3. Pure as a salamander in the flames or wool among the brambles —Miguel de Cervantes
  4. (I’m as) pure as driven slush —Tallulah Bankhead
  5. Pure as snow —William Shakespeare
  6. (I had grown) pure as the dawn and the dew —Algernon Charles Swinburne
  7. Pure as the mountain air —Slogan, D. L. Clark candy
  8. Pure as the sun —Stephen Vincent Benet
  9. Pure in thought as angels —Samuel Rogers
  10. She was as pure as snow and she drifted —Anon blurb for book, New York Times Book Review, November 2, 1986
  11. Unblemished as the cloudless sky —Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  12. Untouched as a nun —Wallace Stegner

    A variation on the same theme: “Pure as a nun” from Margaret Drabble’s novel, The Waterfall

Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.purity - being undiluted or unmixed with extraneous material
condition, status - a state at a particular time; "a condition (or state) of disrepair"; "the current status of the arms negotiations"
plainness - the state of being unmixed with other material; "the plainness of vanilla ice cream"
impureness, impurity - the condition of being impure
2.purity - the state of being unsullied by sin or moral wrong; lacking a knowledge of evil
condition, status - a state at a particular time; "a condition (or state) of disrepair"; "the current status of the arms negotiations"
cleanness - without moral defects
3.purity - a woman's virtue or chastity
sexual morality, chastity, virtue - morality with respect to sexual relations
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

purity

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

purity

noun
1. The condition of being clean and free of contaminants:
2. The condition of being chaste:
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
نَقاء، نَقاوَه، صَفاء، خُلوص، طَهارَه
čistota
renhed
hreinleiki
rýdzosť
čistoča
saflık

purity

[ˈpjʊərɪtɪ] Npureza f
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

purity

[ˈpjʊərɪti] n
[air, water] → pureté f
(= chasteness) [woman, girl] → pureté f
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

purity

nReinheit f; (of motives)Lauterkeit f (geh), → Ehrlichkeit f
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

purity

[ˈpjʊərɪtɪ] npurezza
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

pure

(ˈpjuə) adjective
1. not mixed with anything especially dirty or less valuable. pure gold.
2. clean, especially morally. pure thoughts.
3. complete; absolute. a pure accident.
4. (of sounds) clear; keeping in tune. She sang in a high pure tone.
ˈpurely adverb
ˈpureness noun
ˈpurity noun
ˈpurify (-fai) verb
to make pure. What is the best way to purify the air?
ˌpurifiˈcation (-fi-) noun
ˌpure-ˈblooded adjective
of unmixed race. a pure-blooded Englishman.
ˌpure-ˈbred adjective
(of animals) of unmixed breed; thoroughbred. a pure-bred Arab horse.
pure and simple
(used after a noun) nothing but. It was an accident pure and simple.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
References in classic literature ?
Here, she said to herself had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost: more saint-like, because the result of martyrdom.
Yes, he also declared that he greatly liked me for my purity and good sense; that I must beware of dissolute young men; and that he knew Anna Thedorovna, who had charged him to inform me that she would shortly be visiting me in person.
The son of the Portas passed all his days at the feet of his future wife; and his youthful love, the purity of his words, dispersed the clouds from the mind of the banished daughter; the future was so beautiful as he painted it that she ended by smiling joyfully, though without forgetting her father's severity.
The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness.
"Can I receive that pure liquid into an impure vessel and judge of its purity? Only by the inner purification of myself can I retain in some degree of purity the liquid I receive."
For it is only through our mysterious human relationships--through the love and tenderness and purity of mothers and sisters and wives, through the strength and courage and wisdom of fathers and brothers and teachers--that we can come to the knowledge of Him in whom alone the love, and the tenderness, and the purity, and the strength, and the courage, and the wisdom of all these dwell for ever and ever in perfect fullness.
"What is so exquisite," he thought, as he returned from the Shtcherbatskys', carrying away with him, as he always did, a delicious feeling of purity and freshness, arising partly from the fact that he had not been smoking for a whole evening, and with it a new feeling of tenderness at her love for him--"what is so exquisite is that not a word has been said by me or by her, but we understand each other so well in this unseen language of looks and tones, that this evening more clearly than ever she told me she loves me.
If by living thus reserved and austere, like a hermit in the woods, so long, it has acquired such wonderful purity, who would not regret that the comparatively impure waters of Flint's Pond should be mingled with it, or itself should ever go to waste its sweetness in the ocean wave?
Mary's white muslin dress suited her particularly well, and she seemed the personification of innocence and love as she sat, now bending her head, now gazing up at the very tall and handsome man who was speaking to her with particular tenderness and self-restraint, as if he feared by word or gesture to offend or sully her angelic purity.
Summer Weather of the Prairies.- Purity of the Atmosphere- Canadians on the March.- Sickness in the Camp.- Big River.- Vulgar Nomenclature.- Suggestions About the Original Indian Names.- Camp of Cheyennes.- Trade for Horses.- Character of the Cheyennes.- Their Horsemanship.- Historical Anecdotes of the Tribe.
AN Editor who was always vaunting the purity, enterprise, and fearlessness of his paper was pained to observe that he got no subscribers.
Their honesty is immaculate, and their purity of purpose, and their observance of the rites of their religion, are most uniform and remarkable.