PURITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does purity mean? 

• PURITY (noun)
  The noun PURITY has 3 senses:

1. being undiluted or unmixed with extraneous material

2. the state of being unsullied by sin or moral wrong; lacking a knowledge of evil

3. a woman's virtue or chastity

  Familiarity information: PURITY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PURITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Being undiluted or unmixed with extraneous material

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

pureness; purity

Hypernyms ("purity" is a kind of...):

condition; status (a state at a particular time)

Attribute:

pure (free of extraneous elements of any kind)

impure (combined with extraneous elements)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "purity"):

plainness (the state of being unmixed with other material)

Antonym:

impurity (the condition of being impure)

Derivation:

pure (free of extraneous elements of any kind)

purify (remove impurities from, increase the concentration of, and separate through the process of distillation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The state of being unsullied by sin or moral wrong; lacking a knowledge of evil

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

innocence; pureness; purity; sinlessness; whiteness

Hypernyms ("purity" is a kind of...):

condition; status (a state at a particular time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "purity"):

cleanness (without moral defects)

Derivation:

pure ((used of persons or behaviors) having no faults; sinless)

purify (make pure or free from sin or guilt)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A woman's virtue or chastity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

honor; honour; pureness; purity

Hypernyms ("purity" is a kind of...):

chastity; sexual morality; virtue (morality with respect to sexual relations)

Derivation:

pure (in a state of sexual virginity)

 Context examples 

A unit of measurement for the proportion of gold in an alloy, defining the purity of gold.

(Carat of Gold Alloy, NCI Thesaurus)

"I shall sully the purity of your floor," said he, "but you must excuse me for once."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Her cleanness and purity had reacted upon him, and he felt in his being a crying need to be clean.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Nickel carbonyl is primarily used for nickel coatings and to manufacture high-purity nickel powder.

(Nickel Carbonyl, NCI Thesaurus)

The purity of her life, the formality of her notions, her ignorance of the world—every thing was against me.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A biologics license application must contains specific information on the manufacturing processes, chemistry, pharmacology, clinical pharmacology and the medical affects of the biologic product, sufficient for the FDA to determine that the establishment and the product meet applicable requirements to ensure the continued safety, purity, and potency of the product, including but not limited to GMPs.

(Biologics License Application, NCI Thesaurus)

All that followed was the result of her imprudence; and he went off with her at last, because he could not help it, regretting Fanny even at the moment, but regretting her infinitely more when all the bustle of the intrigue was over, and a very few months had taught him, by the force of contrast, to place a yet higher value on the sweetness of her temper, the purity of her mind, and the excellence of her principles.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Why, I have not mentioned, Agnes, said I, a little embarrassed, that Dora is rather difficult to—I would not, for the world, say, to rely upon, because she is the soul of purity and truth—but rather difficult to—I hardly know how to express it, really, Agnes.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

To be disgraced in the eye of the world, to wear the appearance of infamy while her heart is all purity, her actions all innocence, and the misconduct of another the true source of her debasement, is one of those circumstances which peculiarly belong to the heroine's life, and her fortitude under it what particularly dignifies her character.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)