pur

\pyʁ\

/\pyʁ\/ adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“pur” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #3,034) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#3,034
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est sans mélange, en parlant d’un produit, d’une émotion.

Corpus desk

Index FR-pur · pur · French

pur · rank #3,034 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #3,034
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH puissent

Nearest frequency peer: puissent (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbourhood for “pur”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “pur” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

pur vs PV
0% similar
pur vs Py
0% similar
pur vs px
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for pur
PropertyValue
Headwordpur
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\pyʁ\
Letters3
Frequency rank#3,034
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Où “pur” se place dans la fréquence du français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).purse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « puissent » (#3,033), « remplir » (#3,035), « rupture » (#3,036). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for pur is neighbouring look-alikes ("PV", "Py", …), not just typos; it is anadjective pronounced \pyʁ\. Frequency #3,034 among 6,826 “P” headwords. 10 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Zero misspellings are on record for pur in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PV", "Py", "px", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is pur, spelled P-U-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est sans mélange, en parlant d’un produit, d’une émotion.
  2. 2
    Qui n’est pas altéré, vicié, corrompu ou souillé, en parlant d'un élément physique ou en parlant d'une personne, de ses émotions ou de ses attributs.
  3. 3
    Désigne l’état de l’homme tel qu’on le suppose antérieurement à toute civilisation.
  4. 4
    Abstrait, fondamental. Antonyme : appliqué.
  5. 5
    Absolu, sans mélange, s’emploie pour donner plus de force à la signification des mots auxquels on l’associe. Alors il précède ordinairement le nom mais il le suit, quand il est précédé lui-même du mot tout qui ajoute encore à son énergie.
  6. 6
    Il est quelquefois suivi de la particule de, tant au sens propre qu’au figuré.
  7. 7
    Propre, régulier, bien construit, en parlant de style.
  8. 8
    Net, exact, correctement tracé, en parlant de dessin.
  9. 9
    Qui ne consiste que dans le seul émail du champ de l’écu, sans aucune pièce héraldique. Synonyme : plein.
  10. 10
    Qui est composé à au moins 80 % d’une seule essence.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how pur appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Le sirop, ainsi concentré, ne renferme plus que 1/6 de son poids d'eau ; le reste est du sucre à peu près pur.
  2. Boire de l’eau pure, du vin pur.

Synonyms

intègremonospécifiqueparfait

Antonyms

impurmélangé

This word in other languages

pure(English)puro(Español)rein(Deutsch)simples(Português)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "pur"?
"pur" is spelled P-U-R. The IPA pronunciation is \pyʁ\.
What does "pur" mean?
As an adjective, "pur" means: Qui est sans mélange, en parlant d’un produit, d’une émotion.
What words are commonly confused with "pur"?
"pur" is commonly confused with "PV", "Py", "px". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "pur"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pur" is \pyʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pur" come from?
"pur" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pur", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Ski#3,038lot#3,017cou#3,063bio#2,984

What to do next

You've looked up "pur". Here's where to go from here.

  • "pur" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "PV". View pair
  • Usage frequency rank #3,034 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more French words in the "P" letter cohort. P–Z browse

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list