1
as in polluted
containing foreign or lower-grade substances
be careful, because impure motor oil can damage your car's engine
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in vulgar
depicting or referring to sexual matters in a way that is unacceptable in polite society
Victorian notions of what qualified as impure art now strike us as laughable
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Examples Sentences
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Recent Examples of impure
There was also the upset about Ryan, who shows her breasts—a sweetheart made impure through pulp fiction.
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Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 21 Sep. 2024
But to pursue a state of purity—even a fictional one; even a made-up, obviously impure one—still feels righteous.
—Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 26 Aug. 2024
For her part, Lisa compared the risks of dose-splitting with the risks of her alternatives: Either going to a compounding pharmacy, whose copycat drugs might be unreliable or impure, or continuing to live with obesity.
—Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, 15 Aug. 2024
Hartley connected his temperance and milk crusades in An Essay on Milk from 1842, arguing that milk produced in cities was impure not just because of its adulteration by contaminants like formaldehyde, but also because of its sourcing from urban swill sheds.
—Catherine Long, JSTOR Daily, 17 Jan. 2024
See all Example Sentences for impure 
Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 21 Sep. 2024
But to pursue a state of purity—even a fictional one; even a made-up, obviously impure one—still feels righteous.
—Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 26 Aug. 2024
For her part, Lisa compared the risks of dose-splitting with the risks of her alternatives: Either going to a compounding pharmacy, whose copycat drugs might be unreliable or impure, or continuing to live with obesity.
—Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, 15 Aug. 2024
Hartley connected his temperance and milk crusades in An Essay on Milk from 1842, arguing that milk produced in cities was impure not just because of its adulteration by contaminants like formaldehyde, but also because of its sourcing from urban swill sheds.
—Catherine Long, JSTOR Daily, 17 Jan. 2024
See all Example Sentences for impure
Recent Examples of Synonyms for impure
Adjective
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The vast majority of females in the book are described with vulgar disrespect by the various characters and the narrator.Brittany Wallman, Miami Herald, 2 Jan. 2025
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There is no excuse and no rationalization for a vulgar, inhumane act that senselessly took a life.David Faris, Newsweek, 27 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Avoid Touching Your Face Norovirus spreads easily when viral particles from contaminated surfaces make their way into your mouth, nose, or eyes.David Nikel, Forbes, 13 Jan. 2025
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Residents should also be aware that home water treatment devices are not certified to make extremely contaminated water safe.Andrew J. Whelton, The Conversation, 10 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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He was booked on charges of enticing a child under 16, distribution of obscene matter, and lascivious posing and exhibiting a child in the nude.Andrea Margolis, Fox News, 3 Dec. 2024
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Of course, obscene content has been censored, and services that clearly broke intellectual property laws, like Napster, WikiLeaks, and The Pirate Bay were shuttered, but, for the average person, the internet remained broadly open in the United States.Callum Booth, Forbes, 16 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Vinegar, which is really dilute acetic acid, will help the milk curdle by further denaturing the whey proteins and neutralizing negative charges at the surface of casein micelles.Liz Roth-Johnson, Discover Magazine, 12 Feb. 2013
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However toxic a substance may be, the amount of exposure received by the general population is very dilute.George Johnson, Discover Magazine, 8 July 2013
Adjective
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Before pruning the rest of the tree, sanitize your pruners by dipping the blades into a diluted bleach solution or a cup of 70% isopropyl alcohol.Leanne Potts, Better Homes & Gardens, 17 Jan. 2025
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Unlike human identities managed by centralized IAM systems, NHIs are often created ad hoc by various teams, leading to inconsistent governance and diluted accountability.Gregory Webb, Forbes, 13 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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Which brings us back to the Knicks’ glaring issues: minutes, foul calls, and rotations.Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 11 Jan. 2025
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The captaincy tag had appeared to shake him from a foul mood that has festered as the series has worn on exacerbated by the youthful exuberance of brash upstart Sam Konstas, who has really gotten under his skin.Tristan Lavalette, Forbes, 4 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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This set also comes with a shoe bag that has two compartments and can double as a laundry bag for dirty clothes during your trip.Rachel Trujillo, Travel + Leisure, 8 Jan. 2025
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Rafael takes the fall for the murder, but only after the real killer — likely a dirty cop — kidnaps his daughter Sunny.Ryan Schwartz, TVLine, 7 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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The company in 2020 pleaded guilty to distributing adulterated ice-cream products and agreed to pay a fine over the outbreak.Dylan Tokar, WSJ, 2 Feb. 2023
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And while most of those overdoses involved the illicit synthetic opioid fentanyl, experts say that an adulterated and contaminated drug supply is also leading to deaths.Nadia Kounang, CNN, 17 Mar. 2022
Thesaurus Entries Near impure
Cite this Entry
“Impure.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/impure. Accessed 21 Jan. 2025.
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