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pure gold

pure gold

6 2.7
Metal that is only gold with nothing else in it
  • noun
  • /pjʊr ɡoʊld/
translation icon : oro puro
  • The jeweler showed me a necklace made of pure gold that sparkled brilliantly under the light.

Well then, so how would he have employed this knowledge to find out whether the crown indeed was made of pure gold or not?

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Examples

  • The one-half ounce, 99.99% pure gold coins are available in both proof and uncirculated qualities.

    Blog text (17)
  • Then, Eric, grinning like a schoolboy, emerges from the smoke with a brick-sized bar of pure gold.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • "Arms made of pure gold".

  • A bullet of pure gold.

  • So we have rose gold, pure gold, and copper gold.

  • And here it is, refined pure gold from electronic waste.

  • The mercury is burned off and pure gold remains.

    Academic text (1992)
  • To suggest texture, he also added pure gold highlights.

  • In the dazzling morning light, the skin of his face was of pure gold.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • This is pure gold.

Synonyms

24-karat gold
vspure gold
  • Specialized
2 3.0

Pure gold containing no other metals

is the common term for the same metal but without the numeric purity label

How Pure

pure gold
6 2.7
22-karat gold
  • Specialized
1 3.1
18-karat gold
  • Specialized
1 3.0

Surface Forms

pure gold singular
pure golds plural

Morphology

pure + gold

The meaning is a direct adjective–noun composition: 'pure' (free from contamination) applied to 'gold' yields 'gold free from impurities'. There is no idiomatic or metaphorical shift and the pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer this meaning.

Etymology

Pure gold comes from the simple image of cleaning metal: people melt metal and remove other pieces until only gold is left and it is truly pure. That's why 'pure gold' means '100 percent purity' or 'free from other metals'.