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pure evil. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
pure evil, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
pure evil in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
pure evil you have here. The definition of the word
pure evil will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
pure evil, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
Has been rising in usage from other phrases using this sense of pure since around the 1950s. Has been rising exponentially as a set phrase since the 1990s.
Noun
pure evil (uncountable)
- (set phrase) Absolute evil; that has no sense of morality or mercy at all.
- Antonym: pure good
2022 May 26, Peter Bradshaw, “Pacifiction review – trouble in paradise, in apocalyptic Tahitian mystery”, in The Guardian:I can only say I was captivated by the film and its stealthy evocation of pure evil.
Adjective
pure evil (not comparable)
- (set phrase) Absolutely evil; having no sense of morality or mercy whatsoever.
- Antonym: pure good
1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 114:This, as I take it, was because all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.