adverb

• 1In a pure manner.

  More example sentences

  • ‘act nobly, speak purely, and think charitably’

  Synonyms

  merely, only, just, solely, simply, purely, no more than

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• 2Entirely; exclusively.

  ‘the purpose of the meeting was purely to give information’

  More example sentences

  • ‘If we were to look at this purely in terms of military gains the answer would be obvious.’
  • ‘In purely military terms they posed no threat to the Reichswehr and the state police.’
  • ‘It is almost impossible to think of a law that is purely and exclusively about one topic.’
  • ‘There is no such a thing as purely military advice when it comes to issues of strategy.’
  • ‘But the real bonus of the scheme should not be estimated in purely financial terms.’
  • ‘In purely technical terms, that makes him one of the biggest British musical acts of the modern era.’
  • ‘In purely political terms, you have to wonder if the game is worth the candle, but still they persist.’
  • ‘The success or failure of a war crimes tribunal, it seems, cannot be gauged in purely legal terms.’
  • ‘But purely in terms of relating to something, Africa is very far from the way we live.’
  • ‘They now claim that the meetings were purely exploratory and no decisions have yet been taken.’
  • ‘It is not right to think of intentionality purely in terms of the explanation of behaviour.’
  • ‘This implies that our findings perhaps cannot be explained purely in terms of the placebo effect.’
  • ‘The boundary between pidgins and Creoles cannot be defined in purely linguistic terms.’
  • ‘Britain and the United States have seen film production purely in economic terms.’
  • ‘The club has a vile sexist advertising campaign that portrays women in purely sexual terms.’
  • ‘In purely evidential terms it is to his credit that he accepted that he sometimes did work on this basis.’
  • ‘It describes how every human value is debased and turned into purely cash terms.’
  • ‘To detach it entirely and look at it purely theoretically is to ignore its primary importance.’
  • ‘It has also warned that any extra money in the next financial year will be purely to meet inflation.’
  • ‘He also believes it is important that helpers are not seen purely as police informers.’

  Synonyms

  entirely, completely, absolutely, totally, wholly, exclusively, uniquely, solely, only, simply, just, merely

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