pure

See also: puré, purè, purê, and püré

English

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/, /ˈpjoɹ/, /ˈpjɚ/
- Audio (US); /ˈpjʊɹ/: (file)
(General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈpjʉːə/, /ˈpjoː/
(Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈpjuː(ə)ɹ/
- (dialectical) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪʊ(ə)ɹ/
(Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /pjʉːɹ/
(Ireland) IPA^(key): /pjuːɹ/
(Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪʊə(ɹ)/
(cure–fir merger, rhotic) IPA^(key): /ˈpjɝ/
(cure–fir merger, non-rhotic) IPA^(key): /ˈpjɜː/
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 VII, 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:
  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:
  A guinea is pure gold if it has in it no alloy.
- 1837, Leitch Ritchie, Ireland Picturesque and Romantic, volume 1, page 225:
  As for the rest, the air here is said to be purer than elsewhere in Ireland; the water of the Nore is beautifully transparent; and the bogless state of the land helps out the rhyme.
- 1908 January 4, John Muir, “The Hetch Hetchy Valley”, in Sierra Club Bulletin‎^[1], volume VI, number 4:
  "Hetch Hetchy water is the purest, wholly unpolluted, and forever unpollutable."
Free of immoral behavior or qualities; clean.
- 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, 1 Timothy v:[22], folio cclxxviij, recto:
  Laye hondes sodenly on no man nether be part taker of wother mens synnes. Kepe thy silfe pure.
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.
(Bermuda, slang) A lot of.
- 2013 April 12, “Exclusive: Meet Derpuntae - Bermuda's first meme”, in The Bermuda Sun‎^[2], archived from the original on 2022-12-12:
  Well when ah's youngah, ah'd just light a candle rahn de dinna table play pure crazy 8s and spades vif my brotha til we lot dozed off...

Synonyms

(free of flaws): see Thesaurus:pure
(free of foreign material): see Thesaurus:raw
(free of immoral behavior): innocent, chaste

Antonyms

(antonym(s) of “free of flaws”): dirty, flawed, impure
(antonym(s) of “free of foreign material”): contaminated, impure
(antonym(s) of “free of immoral behavior”): corrupt, guilty, sinful
(antonym(s) of “done for its own sake”): applied

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

→ Welsh: piwr

Translations

free of flaws or imperfections

Arabic: (indefinite) صَافٍ (ṣāfin), (definite) اَلصَّافِي (aṣ-ṣāfī)
Armenian: անարատ (hy) (anarat)
Asturian: puru
Azerbaijani: saf (az)
Basque: garbi
Belarusian: чы́сты m (čýsty)
Bhojpuri: पवित्र (pavitra)
Bulgarian: безупречен (bg) (bezuprečen)
Catalan: pur (ca)
Chinese:
Cantonese: 純 / 纯 (seon⁴)

Mandarin: 純潔 / 纯洁 (zh) (chúnjié), 純 / 纯 (zh) (chún), 純凈 / 纯净 (chúnjìng), 純粹 / 纯粹 (zh) (chúncuì)
Czech: čistý (cs)
Danish: ren (da), fejlfri (da)
Dutch: puur (nl), rein (nl)
Esperanto: pura
Estonian: puhas (et), veatu
Finnish: puhdas (fi)
French: pur (fr)
Galician: puro (gl)
Georgian: სრულყოფილი (srulq̇opili)
German: pur (de), rein (de)
Greek: άψογος (el) (ápsogos)
Hebrew: טָהוֹר (he) (tahor)
Hindi: शुद्ध (hi) (śuddh), ख़ालिस (xālis)
Hungarian: tiszta (hu)
Icelandic: hreinn (is)
Ido: pura (io)
Italian: puro (it), mero (it) m
Japanese: (+ な -na) 純粋 (ja) (じゅんすい, junsui), (+ な -na) 清らか (きよらか, kiyoraka)
Korean: 맑다 (ko) (makda)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: پەتی (petî), ڕەسەن (ckb) (resen)
Latin: purus
Latvian: tīrs (lv)
Maltese: pur
Maori: takarepakore, horomata
Norman: pur
Norwegian: pur, ren (no)
Occitan: pur (oc)
Old Church Slavonic: чистъ (čistŭ)
Old English: clǣne
Ottoman Turkish: آری (arı), تمیز (temiz), صفی (safi), پاك (pak)
Persian: پاک (fa) (pâk), ناب (fa) (nâb)
Plautdietsch: rein
Polish: czysty (pl)
Portuguese: puro (pt)
Romanian: pur (ro), curat (ro) m or n
Russian: чи́стый (ru) (čístyj)
Sanskrit: चौक्ष (sa) (caukṣa)
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: cysty
Spanish: puro (es)
Swedish: pur (sv), ren (sv)
Tagalog: tagnas
Thai: บริสุทธิ์ (th) (bɔɔ-rí-sùt)
Turkish: salt (tr), arı (tr), saf (tr)
Ukrainian: чи́стий (čýstyj)
Vietnamese: thuần khiết (vi)
Welsh: pur (cy)
Yiddish: ריין (reyn)

free of foreign material or pollutants

Arabic: (indefinite) صَافٍ (ṣāfin), (definite) اَلصَّافِي (aṣ-ṣāfī)
Armenian: անարատ (hy) (anarat)
Asturian: puru
Azerbaijani: xalis (az), saf (az), təmiz (az)
Belarusian: чы́сты m (čýsty)
Catalan: pur (ca)
Chinese:
Cantonese: 純 / 纯 (seon⁴)

Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 純粹 / 纯粹 (zh) (chúncuì), ^{(please verify)} 纯的 (chún de)
Cornish: pur
Czech: ryzí (cs) m
Dutch: puur (nl), onverontreinigd, ^{(please verify)} klaar (nl), ^{(please verify)} klinkklaar (nl)
Egyptian:

(wꜥb)
Esperanto: pura
Estonian: puhas (et)
Faroese: ^{(please verify)} reinur
Finnish: puhdas (fi); pelkkä (fi), silkka (fi)
French: pur (fr) m
Galician: puro (gl)
Georgian: სუფთა (supta)
German: rein (de), ^{(please verify)} bloß (de), ^{(please verify)} schier (de)
Gothic: 𐌷𐌻𐌿𐍄𐍂𐍃 (hlutrs)
Greek: καθαρός (el) (katharós)
Ancient: καθαρός (katharós)
Hungarian: tiszta (hu), színtiszta (hu), (e.g. gold) szín- (hu), merő (hu), puszta (hu), teljes (hu), hamisítatlan (hu)
Icelandic: hreinn (is)
Ingrian: aima
Interlingua: pur
Italian: puro (it)
Japanese: 純粋な (ja) (じゅんすいな, junsui na)
Korean: 맑다 (ko) (makda), 순수한 (sunsuhan)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: ڕوون (rûn)
Latin: purus, merus
Latvian: tīrs (lv)
Malay: tulen (ms)
Maltese: pur
Maori: parakore, horomata
Marathi: शुद्ध (śuddha)
Norman: pur
Norwegian:
Bokmål: ren (no), rein (no), ^{(please verify)} ublandet

Nynorsk: rein, ^{(please verify)} ublanda
Occitan: pur (oc)
Old English: clǣne
Ottoman Turkish: ساده (sade)
Persian: محض (fa) (mahz)
Plautdietsch: rein
Polish: czysty (pl) m
Portuguese: puro (pt)
Romanian: sadea (ro)
Russian: чи́стый (ru) (čístyj)
Sanskrit: पावक (sa) m (pāvaka)
Slovak: ^{(please verify)} čistý m, ^{(please verify)} číry m
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: cysty
Spanish: puro (es)
Swedish: ren (sv)
Tagalog: tagnas
Thai: บริสุทธิ์ (th) (bɔɔ-rí-sùt)
Tocharian B: astare
Turkish: saf (tr)
Ugaritic: 𐎉𐎅𐎗 (ṭhr)
Ukrainian: чи́стий (čýstyj)
Yiddish: ריין (reyn)

free of immoral behavior or qualities; clean

Bulgarian: непорочен (bg) (neporočen)
Catalan: pur (ca)
Dutch: puur (nl)
Estonian: puhas (et), siiras (et)
Finnish: viaton (fi), puhdas (fi)
Georgian: უბიწო (ubic̣o)
German: rein (de)
Gothic: 𐍃𐍅𐌹𐌺𐌽𐍃 (swikns)
Greek: αγνός (el) (agnós)
Ancient: ἁγνός (hagnós)

Cretan: ἀδνός (adnós)
Hungarian: ártatlan (hu), romlatlan (hu), szeplőtelen (hu), szűzies (hu)
Italian: puro (it)
Japanese: 純粋な (じゅんすいな, junsui na)
Korean: 맑다 (ko) (makda)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: ڕەسەن (ckb) (resen)
Latgalian: ceists
Latin: purus
Latvian: tīrs (lv), šķīsts, nevainīgs
Maltese: pur
Maori: matatika, horomata
Old English: clǣne
Ottoman Turkish: صفی (safi)
Plautdietsch: rein
Portuguese: puro (pt)
Romanian: pur (ro), cast (ro)
Swedish: pur (sv), renhjärtad (sv), ren (sv)
Thai: บุญ (th) (bun)
Turkish: saf (tr)
Uzbek: soʻm (uz)

of a branch of science: done for its own sake

Azerbaijani: xalis (az)
Bulgarian: чист (bg) (čist)
Finnish: puhdas (fi), yleinen (fi)
German: rein (de)
Greek: θεωρητικός (el) m (theoritikós)
Hungarian: elméleti (hu)
Maltese: pur

phonetics: of a single, simple sound or tone

Finnish: puhdas (fi)
German: einfach (de)

of sound: without harmonics or overtones

Finnish: puhdas (fi), kirkas (fi)
German: pur (de), rein (de), sauber (de)
Polish: czysty (pl)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Albanian: ^{(please verify)} pastër (sq)
Breton: ^{(please verify)} glan (br)
Cebuano: ^{(please verify)} puro
Dutch: ^{(please verify)} puur (nl), ^{(please verify)} zuiver (nl), ^{(please verify)} rein (nl)
Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} pura
Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} pur
Latin: ^{(please verify)} purus, ^{(please verify)} putus
Spanish: ^{(please verify)} puro (es)
Telugu: ^{(please verify)} స్వఛ్ఛమైన (svachchamaina)

Adverb

pure (not comparable)

(Liverpool, 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

extremely

Dutch: zeer (nl)
Finnish: erittäin (fi)
Portuguese: bem (pt)
Swedish: sjukt (sv), galet (sv), äkta (sv)

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 […]

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, chapter 8, in The Tinker's Daughter:
  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, page 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.) […]

Anagrams

Pu'er, puer, Prue, reup, re-up, Puer, Pre-U, Perú, Peru, pu'er, Rupe

Danish

Etymology 1

From Latin pūre, the adverb of pūrus (“clean, pure”); or the definite form of pur (“pure”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /puːrə/, [ˈpʰuːɐ̯]

Adjective

pure

complete
(adverbial) completely

Inflection

Inflection of *pure*
	positive	comparative	superlative
indefinite common singular	pure	—	—²
indefinite 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

From French purée (“puree”).

Alternative forms

puré

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /pyre/, [pʰyˈʁæ]

Noun

pure c (singular definite pureen, plural indefinite pureer)

puree

Inflection

Declension of pure

common gender	Singular		Plural
common gender	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	pure	pureen	pureer	pureerne
genitive	pures	pureens	pureers	pureernes

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /puːrə/, [ˈpʰuːɐ̯]

Adjective

pure

definite of pur
plural of pur

Esperanto

Adverb

pure

purely

Finnish

Verb

pure

inflection of purra:
1. indicative present connegative
2. second-person singular imperative present/present connegative

Anagrams

Peru, peru

French

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /pyʁ/
Homophones: pur, purs, pures
Rhymes: -yʁ

Adjective

pure

feminine singular of pur

Anagrams

German

Pronunciation

Audio: (file)

Adjective

pure

inflection of pur:
1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
2. strong nominative/accusative plural
3. weak nominative all-gender singular
4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈpu.re/
Rhymes: -ure
Hyphenation: pù‧re

Etymology 1

Adjective

pure

feminine plural of puro

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

Perù, prue, rupe

Latin

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

Synonyms

(correctly): ēmendātē

Etymology 2

Noun

pūre

ablative singular of pūs

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^[3], London: Macmillan and Co.
- (ambiguous) logic, dialectic: dialectica (-ae or -orum) (pure Latin disserendi ratio et scientia)
- (ambiguous) astronomy: astrologia (pure Latin sidera, caelestia)

Anagrams

puer, rūpe

Middle English

Alternative forms

pur, puyr, pore, poure, peure, puȝr, puir, puire, puyre

Etymology

From Old French pur, from Latin pūrus.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /piu̯r/

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

Scots: puir, pure
English: pure
→ Cornish: pur

References

“pūr(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-02.

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

pure m (definite singular pureen, indefinite plural pureer, definite plural pureene)

alternative spelling of puré

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /pʉˈreː/

Noun

pure m (definite singular pureen, indefinite plural purear, definite plural pureane)

alternative spelling of puré

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /²pʉː.rə/

Adjective

pure

definite singular of pur
plural of pur

Rapa Nui

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *pule.

Noun

pure

cowrie

Scots

Adjective

pure (comparative mair pure, superlative maist pure)

completely, utterly
The auld man wis pure ragin!
The old man was absolutely furious!

Swahili

Pronunciation

Audio (Kenya): (file)

Noun

pure class IX (plural pure class X)

githeri (traditional Kenyan meal of maize and beans mixed and boiled together)
Synonym: kande

Swedish

Adjective

pure

definite natural masculine singular of pur

Anagrams

Peru

[1] Angelo Prati, "Vocabolario Etimologico Italiano", Torino, 1951; headword pure

[1]

English

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Adjective

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

Translations

Adverb

Translations

Verb

Noun

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Noun

Further reading

Anagrams

Danish

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Adjective

Inflection

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Noun

Inflection

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

Adjective

Esperanto

Adverb

Finnish

Verb

Anagrams

French

Pronunciation

Adjective

Anagrams

German

Pronunciation

Adjective

Italian

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Adjective

Etymology 2

Adverb

Conjunction

References

Anagrams

Latin

Etymology 1

Adverb

Synonyms

Etymology 2

Noun

References

Anagrams

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Pronunciation

Adjective

Descendants

References

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Noun

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Adjective

Rapa Nui

Etymology

Noun