[syn: honor, honour, purity, pureness]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Purity \Pu"ri*ty\, n. [OE. purete, purte, OF. purt['e], F.
puret['e], from L. puritas, fr. purus pure. See Pure.]
The condition of being pure. Specifically:
(a) freedom from foreign admixture or deleterious matter; as,
the purity of water, of wine, of drugs, of metals.
(b) Cleanness; freedom from foulness or dirt. "The purity of
a linen vesture." --Holyday.
(c) Freedom from guilt or the defilement of sin; innocence;
chastity; as, purity of heart or of life.
(d) Freedom from any sinister or improper motives or views.
(e) Freedom from foreign idioms, or from barbarous or
improper words or phrases; as, purity of style.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
purity
n 1: being undiluted or unmixed with extraneous material [syn:
purity, pureness] [ant: impureness, impurity]
2: the state of being unsullied by sin or moral wrong; lacking a
knowledge of evil [syn: purity, pureness, sinlessness,
innocence, whiteness]
3: a woman's virtue or chastity [syn: honor, honour,
purity, pureness]