pu|ri|ty

pu|ri|ty «PYUR uh tee», noun.

1. freedom from dirt or mixture; clearness; cleanness: »

the purity of drinking water.

2. freedom from evil; innocence: »

No one doubts the purity of Joan of Arc's motives. Claude's agonizing longing for purity struggles against a sensuality that is wholly animal (Saturday Review).

3. freedom from foreign or inappropriate elements; careful correctness: »

purity of language, purity of style.

4. saturation: »

The purity of color is its amount of difference from gray of the same brightness. The purity of any spectrum color is of course 100%, and the purity of white is zero (Sears and Zemansky).

╂[< Old French purete, learned borrowing from Late Latin pūritās < Latin pūrus pure]