Purification

ˌpjʊərɪfɪˈkeɪʃən

nounmedium📊CommonGeneral
2 meanings2 idioms/phrases3 questions

Definitions

2 meanings
1

The act of removing contaminants or impurities to make something pure.

ˌpjʊərɪfɪˈkeɪʃən

nounneutralmedium
General

The act of making something pure or free from contaminants.

The purification process removed all traces of harmful chemicals.

💡 Simply: Purification is like giving something a super-duper-clean makeover! Imagine you have muddy water, and you use a filter to make it crystal clear. That filtering is a form of purification. It’s taking away all the icky stuff.

👶 For kids: Purification means making something clean! Like when you wash your hands to get rid of the dirt, you are purifying them!

More Examples

2

The air filter provided purification, leading to cleaner air.

3

The purification of the river water was a major environmental goal.

How It's Used

Water Treatment

"The water treatment plant uses several stages of purification to make the water safe to drink."

Religious Practices

"Ritual purification is a common practice in many religions, intended to cleanse the body and soul."

Medical

"Protein purification is a key step in many biomedical research processes."

2

The act of achieving spiritual or moral cleanliness.

ˌpjʊərɪfɪˈkeɪʃən

nounpositivemedium
General

The process of making something spiritually or morally pure.

Fasting and prayer were forms of spiritual purification.

💡 Simply: Sometimes, we talk about purification for our hearts or spirits. Imagine feeling bad about something you did. If you try to make things right, that's a kind of purification. It's about making your inside feelings 'cleaner'.

👶 For kids: When you do something nice to make up for something you did that wasn't so nice, that can be like a purification for your feelings!

More Examples

2

He sought purification through acts of charity.

3

The religious rite involved symbolic purification with water.

How It's Used

Religious

"The ceremony was an act of purification intended to cleanse the soul."

Moral

"Through acts of repentance, she sought purification from her past sins."

Tip:Think of 'pure soul' to remember it's about spiritual cleansing.

Idioms & expressions

Water purification

The process of removing contaminants from water to make it suitable for drinking or other uses.

"Water purification is essential for providing safe drinking water."

Air purification

The process of removing pollutants, allergens, and other undesirable particles from the air to improve indoor air quality.

"The air purification system improved the indoor environment."

From Middle English purificacioun, from Old French purification, from Latin purificatio, from purificare ('to purify').

The term has been used since the 14th century, originally referring primarily to religious or moral cleansing.

Memory tip

Think of 'pure' and 'action' to remember it's about making something pure.

Word Origin

LanguageLatin
Original meaning

"pure, clean"

water purificationair purificationritual purificationprotein purification

Common misspellings

purifcationpurifactionpurificasion

Usage

30%Spoken
70%Written