purify
Other forms: purified; purifying; purifies
To purify something is to remove dirt, chemicals, or anything else that it's contaminated with. You might decide to purify your tap water if it tastes like chlorine.
While scientists purify various chemicals during experiments, the substance that people most often purify is water. Water needs to be treated before it's safe to drink, and cities purify the water they send out to people's houses. You can also use the verb purify in a figurative way, to mean "make ritually or religiously clean or pure." This is the word's earliest meaning, from the Latin root purificare, "to make pure."
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remove impurities from, increase the concentration of, and separate through the process of distillation“purify the water”
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make pure or free from sin or guilt“he left the monastery purified”types:lustratepurify by means of a ritual; also used in post-Communist countries to refer to the political cleansing of former officials
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become clean or pure or free of guilt and sin“The hippies came to the ashram in order to purify”type of:changeundergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature
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Vocabulary lists containing purify
Bonjour, vocabulary connoisseurs! Did you know that almost 30% of words in the English language come from French? Brush up on these common English words derived from French and show everyone that your vocabulary is the crème de la crème. Here are links to our lists in the collection: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5, List 6, List 7, List 8, List 9, List 10, List 11, Terms
In this graphic novel based on the author's own experiences, a young immigrant from Russia wants to go to summer camp like her American-born friends — but when her parents finally agree, she finds that camp is nothing like she expected.