Purification

How to spell purification

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce purification

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does purification mean?

1. nounThe process of removing impurities or contaminants to make something clean or pure.

Purification in a sentence

• The plant uses several filters for water purification before the supply reaches homes.

• Purification of the crude oil takes place across multiple stages at the refinery.

Where does purification come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin purificatio, a noun built on the verb purificare, meaning 'to make pure' or 'to cleanse'. That verb joins purus, which literally meant 'clean, unmixed, or free from dirt', with facere, the everyday Latin verb 'to make or do' that hides inside a great crowd of English words ending in -fy and -fication. The sense was strongly religious and ritual from early on: ancient ceremonies of purification removed not only physical filth but spiritual or ceremonial impurity. English took the word in during the 1300s by way of Old French purification, at first in church contexts and later for any process of cleaning or refining. The buried -fic- step, coming from facere, is the part writers tend to garble, so it helps to remember that purification is simply the act of making something pure.

How the word is built

• pur- (from Latin purus: clean, pure)
• -ific- (from facere: to make)
• -ation (noun of action)