Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Impure |
ImpureAdjective1. Combined with extraneous elements. 2. Used of persons or behaviors; not morally pure; "impure thoughts". 3. (religion) ritually unclean or impure; "and the swine...is unclean to you"-Leviticus 11:3. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "impure" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Slang in 1811 | IMPURE. A modern term for a lady of easy virtue. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: ImpureSynonym: unclean (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonyms: clean (adj), pure (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Impurity | Verb: be impure; Adjective: intrigue; debauch, defile, seduce; abuse, violate, deflower; commit adultery;n. |
Adjective: impure; unclean; (dirty); not to be mentioned to ears polite; immodest, shameless; indecorous, indelicate, indecent; Fescennine; loose, risque, coarse, gross, broad, free, equivocal, smutty, fulsome, ribald, obscene, bawdy, pornographic. | |
Uncleanness | Adjective: dirty, filthy, grimy; unclean, impure; soiled; Verb: not to be handled with kid gloves; dusty, snuffy, smutty, sooty, smoky; thick, turbid, dreggy; slimy; mussy. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Of an impure nature (Runaway Bride; writing credit: Josann McGibbon; Sara Parriott) | |
Movie/TV Titles | L' Impure (1991) Impure Thoughts (1985) | |
Song Titles | Impure Thoughts (performing artist: Reverend Billy C. Wirtz) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | let their impure blood water the furrows |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | Every impure thought, deliberately yielded to, is a keen lance transfixing that sacred and loving heart |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | The impure can neither stand nor sit with purity |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Travel | Nepal | More common are illnesses caused by impure water or food. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | MACROBIAN, n. One forgotten of the gods and living to a great age. History is abundantly supplied with examples, from Methuselah to Old Parr, but some notable instances of longevity are less well known. A Calabrian peasant named Coloni, born in 1753, lived so long that he had what he considered a glimpse of the dawn of universal peace. Scanavius relates that he knew an archbishop who was so old that he could remember a time when he did not deserve hanging. In 1566 a linen draper of Bristol, England, declared that he had lived five hundred years, and that in all that time he had never told a lie. There are instances of longevity (macrobiosis) in our own country. Senator Chauncey Depew is old enough to know better. The editor of The American, a newspaper in New York City, has a memory that goes back to the time when he was a rascal, but not to the fact. The President of the United States was born so long ago that many of the friends of his youth have risen to high political and military preferment without the assistance of personal merit. The verses following were written by a macrobian: When I was young the world was fair And amiable and sunny. A brightness was in all the air, In all the waters, honey. The jokes were fine and funny, The statesmen honest in their views, And in their lives, as well, And when you heard a bit of news 'Twas true enough to tell. Men were not ranting, shouting, reeking, Nor women "generally speaking." The Summer then was long indeed: It lasted one whole season! The sparkling Winter gave no heed When ordered by Unreason To bring the early peas on. Now, where the dickens is the sense In calling that a year Which does no more than just commence Before the end is near? When I was young the year extended From month to month until it ended. I know not why the world has changed To something dark and dreary, And everything is now arranged To make a fellow weary. The Weather Man -- I fear he Has much to do with it, for, sure, The air is not the same: It chokes you when it is impure, When pure it makes you lame. With windows closed you are asthmatic; Open, neuralgic or sciatic. Well, I suppose this new regime Of dun degeneration Seems eviler than it would seem To a better observation, And has for compensation Some blessings in a deep disguise Which mortal sight has failed To pierce, although to angels' eyes They're visible unveiled. If Age is such a boon, good land! He's costumed by a master hand! Venable Strigg |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Phil McGraw | That's right. And so you have got to say I feel like damaged goods here. I feel like I don't have anything good to offer. I'm unclean and impure. That's because of what he did to me and I want my power back. I'm not going to live that way. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Impure" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 49.09% of the time. "Impure" is used about 55 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 49.09% | 27 | 66,962 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 43.64% | 24 | 71,196 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 7.27% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Total | 100.00% | 55 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "impure": Pure-impure. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
impure | 8 |
gcc impure ptr | 3 |
impure science | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "impure"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | i shthurur (debauched, disorganized, dissipated, dissolute, libertine, licentious, loose, profligate, promiscuous, unrighteous), i papastër (unclean, unhygienic), i përzier (assorted, farraginous, half breed, heterogeneous, joint, medley, mingled, miscellaneous, mixed, promiscuous), i ndotur (grimy, hole-in-the-wall, miry, sludgy, smutty, spotted). (various references) | |
Arabic | ملوث (contaminated, defiled, dirty, filed, foul, infectious, polluted, polluter, spotted, staining), نجس (defile, defiled, pollute, profane, sinful, unclean, untouchable), قذر (augean, beastly, contaminated, crummy, defiled, dingy, dirt, dirty, disreputable, dungy, filthy, foul, ghoulish, grimy, grubby, lousy, mean, mucky, muddy, nasty, obscene, pig, piggish, polluted, rubbishy, sinful, slattern, slatternly, slob, sloppy, slovenly, smutty, soil, sordid, squalid, unclean, uncleanly, untidy, verminous, vile), غير طاهر (unclean), دنس (defile, desecrate, grubby, ordure, pollute, pollution, profane, profanity, scum, soil, sullying, violate), بذيء (dirty, filthy, improper, indecent, nasty, naughty, ribald, scurrilous, shameless, smutty, vulgar). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | смесен (amalgamated, farraginous, hyphenated, incorporated, medley, mingled, miscellaneous, mixed, mongrel, promiscuous, raggle-taggle, scrappy, scratch), развратен (abandoned, debauched, dissolute, fast, filthy, goatish, immoral, lax, lecherous, lewd, lickerish, perverted, profligate, rakish, reprobate, scarlet, sporty), нечист (dirty, drossy, foul, slatternly, turbid, unclean, uncleanly, unwashed), нецеломъдрен (unchaste), мръсен (bawdy, currish, dingy, dirt, dirty, filthy, foul, frowzy, greasy, grimy, hoggish, messy, mucky, muddy, nasty, obscene, piggish, raunchy, ruddy, salacious, sleazy, sordid, squalid, unclean, unwashed, vile), порочен (iniquitous, poisonous, unregenerated, vicious, wicked), подправен (adulterate, adulterine, corrupt, counterfeit, feigned, forged, fraudulent, imitation, pinchbeck, queer, seasoned, sham, spiced, spicy, supposititious). (various references) | |
Chinese | 濁 (muddy), 不纯. (various references) | |
Czech | zneèištìný (dirty, unclean), oplzlý (bawdy, dirty, gross, lewd, obscene, salacious, scurrilous, uncouth, vile), necudný (greasy, lascivious, salacious, unchaste), neèistý (unclean), nízký (base, flat, ignoble, low, short, sordid, squalid, tawdry, villainous), špinavý (black, dirty, filthy, foul, grimy, grotty, grubby, messy, murky, nasty, seamy, slovenly, smutty, sordid, squalid, unclean). (various references) | |
Danish | urent zink (impure zinc), urent cobaltoxid (impure cobalt oxide), urent antimon (impure antimony, singles regulus), uren halvleder (impure semiconductor), denne ghost-line skyldes opstigningen af en raekke af gasbobler,hvis spor derefter er fyldt op med uren smelte (and the path that they followed has then become filled by impure liquid, this ghost is due to the rise of a train of gas bubbles), antimon regulus (impure antimony, singles regulus). (various references) | |
Dutch | werkzink (impure zinc), verontreinigde halfgeleider (impure semiconductor), onzuiver kobaltoxyde (impure cobalt oxide), onzuiver antimonium (impure antimony, singles regulus), deze ghost-line is veroorzaakt door een keten van gasblazen,terwijl de baan die zij gevolgd hebben daarna gevuld is met de verontreinigde smelt (and the path that they followed has then become filled by impure liquid, this ghost is due to the rise of a train of gas bubbles), antimonium regulus (impure antimony, singles regulus). (various references) | |
Farsi | ناپاک (Squawk, Unclean, Unwell, Unwholesome), ناصاف (Lumpy, Ragged, Streaky, Uneven), ناخالص (Gross), نادرست (Amiss, Dishonest, Erroneous, False, Foul, Imprecise, Inaccurate, Incorrect, Inexact, Jackleg, Sinister, Spurious, Unfair, Unsound, Untrue, Vicious), چرک (Dingy, Dirt, Dirty, Frowzy, Guck, Lymph, Pus, Puss, Slag, Sordid, Squawk), کثیف (Amiss, Dirty, Draggy, Grimy, Lousy, Messy, Mussy, Nasty, Sloppy, Sordid, Squawk), ژیژ. (various references) | |
Finnish | saastainen (filthy, foul, unclean), rietas (indecent, lewd, obscene), likainen (dirty, filthy, soiled, unclean), epäpuhdas (unclean). (various references) | |
French | impur. (various references) | |
German | unrein (bad, dirty, impurely, unchaste, unclean, uncleanly). (various references) | |
Greek | ακάθαρτοσ (filthy, foul, grubby, slaggy, slimy, slob, sloppy, unclean, verminous). (various references) | |
Hebrew | לא טהור, לא נקי (unclean), טמא (contaminated, defiled, unclean). (various references) | |
Hungarian | tisztátlan (unclean), kevert (combined, medley, mingled, miscellaneous, mixed, motley, tempered). (various references) | |
Indonesian | tidak murni. (various references) | |
Italian | impuro, impurità (impurity). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 不潔 (dirty, filthy, unclean). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ふけつ (dirty, filthy, unclean). (various references) | |
Korean | 불결한 (filthy, unclean). (various references) | |
Manx | sallagh (dingy, filthy, foul, grubby, nasty, piggish, squalid), neughlen (foul, lewd, muddy, unclean, vulgar). (various references) | |
Norwegian | uren. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | impureay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | impuro (drossy, muddy, obscene, salacious, unchaste, unclean, uncound), impudico (immodest, lewd, salacious), imoral (drossy, filthy, gay, immoral, obscene, profligate, vicious, wasteful, wicked), obsceno (bawdry, dirty, filthy, immodest, indecent, obscene, ribald, scabrous, unclean), misturado (admixed, drossy, farraginous, jumbled, maslin, medley, mingled, miscellaneous, mixed, unsized), desonesto (cambered, crooked, devious, dishonest, drossy, false, immodest, knavish, light-fingered, low-down, nasty, shady, sharp, shifty, thievish, tortuous, unchaste, unfair, unfaithful, untrustworthy). (various references) | |
Romanian | impur (feculent, unclean), imoral (corrupt, gay, immoral, lecherous, licentious, loose, nasty, outrageous, scrofulous, sinful, wicked), pângãrit, murdar (base, basely, bawdy, dingy, dirty, dungy, filthy, foul, foully, frowzy, greasy, grimy, grubby, mangy, messy, nasty, piggish, piggy, poky, scurrilous, seedy, shabby, slimy, slovenly, smeary, smutty, soppy, sordid, sordidly, squalid, Tarry, thick, unclean, untidy), falsificat (adulterate, adulterine, factitious, sophisticated, spurious, strained). (various references) | |
Russian | смешанный (crossbred, cross-bred, farraginous, indiscriminate, medley, mingled, miscellaneous, mixed, mixing up, mongrel). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | prljav (dingy, dirty, drossy, feculent, filthy, foul, grimy, muck, mucky, scurvy, sordid, squalid, unclean), pomešan (mingled, mixed), nečist (dishonest, disorderly, profane, unclean). (various references) | |
Spanish | impuro. (various references) | |
Swedish | oren (dirty, filthy, foul, unclean). (various references) | |
Turkish | iffetsiz (lewd, unchaste), saf olmayan, pis (augean, black, dingy, dirty, dungy, effing, filthy, foul, frowzy, goatish, grimy, grubby, mangy, messy, miasmal, miasmatic, miry, mucky, nasty, obnoxious, obscene, offensive, scruffy, scummy, slimy, sordid, squalid, unclean, uncleanly), kirli (bedraggled, dingy, dirty, draggled, filthy, grimy, grubby, smudgy, soiled, spotted, squalid, unclean, venose, venous), katışık (base, mixed), cenabet, ahlaksız (abandoned, characterless, corrupt, debauched, depraved, dirty, disorderly, dissolute, frail, ill, immoral, libertine, loose, low down, mean, purple, rascal, rascally, rep, reprobate, unclean, uncleanly, unmoral, unprincipled, unregenerate, unscrupulous, vicious, wanton, wicked). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | осквернений, нечистий (adulterant, dark, drossy, unchaste, unclean), непристойний (bad, bawdy, beastly, blue, coarse, dirty, fie-fie, foul, graceless, greasy, immodest, improper, indecent, lewd, nasty, nubbly, obscene, off color, off colour, paw-paw, ribald, salacious, salt, scabrous, scurrilous, shameless, smutty, sultry, unbecoming, unchaste), з домішкою. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | không trong trắng có pha trộn, không trong sạch, không tinh khiết; dơ bẩn, ô uế không trinh bạch. (various references) | |
Welsh | amhu+r (foul). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | immunda, immundus, inmunda, inmundae, inmundam, inmundas, inmunde, inmundi, inmundis, inmundo, inmundorum, inmundos, inmundum, inmundus, inquinamentis, inquinamento, inquinamentum. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "impure": impurely, impureness, impurenesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Impure" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Aizpuru, enpure, imbuer, impare, impera, impere, impered, Impire, impre, impude, impuge, impune, impur, impyre, inpure, Mirpur. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "impure" (pronounced i'mpyuh"r) |
| 4 | -p y uh" r | pure. |
| 3 | -y uh" r | buhr, cure, demure, endure, immature, inure, obscure, procure, secure. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: umpire. | |
| Words within the letters "e-i-m-p-r-u" | |
-1 letter: prime. | |
-2 letters: emir, mire, mure, peri, perm, pier, prim, pure, puri, rime, ripe, rump. | |
-3 letters: emu, imp, ire, mir, per, pie, piu, pur, rei, rem, rep, rim, rip, rue, rum, ump. | |
-4 letters: em, er, me, mi, mu, pe, pi, re, um, up. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-i-m-p-r-u" | |
+1 letter: bumpier, dumpier, humpier, imputer, jumpier, lumpier, plumier, premium, pumicer, spumier, umpired, umpires. | |
+2 letters: apterium, clumpier, emporium, europium, frumpier, glumpier, grumphie, grumpier, imperium, impugner, impurely, imputers, murphies, peridium, perineum, plumeria, plummier, premiums, primuses, pumicers, rumplier, stumpier, umpirage, unprimed. | |
+3 letters: bumpering, crumplier, emporiums, epicurism, europiums, frumpiest, grumphies, grumpiest, imperious, imperiums, importune, imposture, imprudent, impugners, pauperism, perfuming, permuting, plumerias, presidium, presuming, presummit, pterygium, puerilism, reptilium, repumping, rumpliest, semigroup, septarium, superfirm, supermind, supermini, superpimp, trapezium, triumphed, umpirages. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Quotations: Spoken | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
