1
as in innocently
with purity of thought and deed the devout girl vowed to live her life purely and in the service of God

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

2
as in solely
for nothing other than I fish purely for the fun of it—I don't care if I end up with no fish to fry

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

3
as in only
nothing more than her pleasantries were purely for show and masked her true feelings

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Examples Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of purely Rather than focusing purely on punitive, unilateral action, an emerging bipartisan consensus emphasizes the importance of improving U.S. trade partners’ labor practices to start to level the playing field. Miriam Sapiro, Foreign Affairs, 23 Oct. 2024 While mass immigration has become a hot-button political issue across the world, some politicians in Europe have started to push back against golden visas that give the wealthy citizenship or residency purely based on investments. Robert Frank, CNBC, 1 Nov. 2024 Take, for a purely hypothetical example, Alfonso Arau’s 1992 adaptation of Laura Esquivel‘s Like Water for Chocolate. Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Nov. 2024 No longer just an apple-picking staple—or a clothing item purely associated with bands like Nirvana—turn to Miu Miu’s tartan style for a high-fashion twist on the trend. Laura Jackson, Vogue, 31 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for purely 
Recent Examples of Synonyms for purely
Adverb
  • Research and development expenses were eliminated following a business model shift to focus solely on manufacturing for Medtronic, compared to $2.8 million in the previous year.
    Quartz Bot, Quartz, 14 Nov. 2024
  • All opinions expressed by the CNBC Pro contributors are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBC UNIVERSAL, their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet or another medium.
    Nishant Pant, CNBC, 5 Nov. 2024
Adverb
  • Travis Hunter had several Heisman moments but only a mediocre day receiving by his standards (five catches for 55 yards).
    Kyle Newman, The Denver Post, 16 Nov. 2024
  • Nichols was staying alone in the motel and had only been there a short time, Westminster police said in the time following her death.
    City News Service, Orange County Register, 16 Nov. 2024
Adverb
  • The commission properly performed its duties in cases against David Geffen, the Edge and Vinod Khosla.
    Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 13 Nov. 2024
  • When the track properly kicks in, the different elements of the busy mix all come through, though the low-mids of the bassline and mids of the vocals stand in the front while the guitar strums and drums sit a bit further back.
    PCMAG, PCMAG, 12 Nov. 2024
Adverb
  • Luciano has exclusively played either second base or shortstop in the majors and minors.
    Justice delos Santos, The Mercury News, 7 Nov. 2024
  • Hasidic shoppers in Williamsburg almost exclusively patronize mom-and-pop shops, the local ones along Lee Avenue and the adjacent streets that sell shoes and kosher poultry and Judaica and more.
    Talia Lavin, Curbed, 7 Nov. 2024
Adverb
  • To name just one example: After an opening act filled with lurid cartel violence, Emilia Pérez gives us a comic number about gender-reassignment surgery.
    Nate Jones, Vulture, 9 Nov. 2024
  • While climate denial allows people to protect themselves from feelings of distress, terror management theory suggests that denying death is just the tip of the iceberg.
    Discover Magazine, Discover Magazine, 8 Nov. 2024
Adverb
  • Gift cards, too, are simply cash by another name, only restricted to specific stores.
    Allie Volpe, Vox, 19 Nov. 2024
  • Murakami isn’t so much a novelist as a fictional anthologist, collating various monologues delivered by his characters; some of these are riveting narratives in their own right, but many simply serve to explain what’s going on or clumsily advance the plot.
    Bailey Trela, Vulture, 19 Nov. 2024
Adverb
  • While Venu’s backers have promoted the service as being something new, the lower court asserted that the concept was actually not new, and was also merely an aggregation of 15 linear network feeds.
    Dade Hayes, Deadline, 5 Nov. 2024
  • The August rally was merely a blip in an otherwise dramatic depreciation of the currency since 2012.
    Steven Desmyter, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024

Thesaurus Entries Near purely

Cite this Entry

“Purely.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/purely. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.

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