Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
✅ To correct 🧪 To purify 🔌 To convert electricity 📏 To measure length
to rectify

to rectify

1 7.7
To remove impurities from a liquid to make it pure
  • verb
  • /ˈrɛktɪˌfaɪ/
  • Specialized
: rectificar

Examples

  • But that's not how we rectify unstable paint.

  • The technician needs to rectify the solution by removing the impurities before the experiment can proceed.

  • To achieve high quality, it is essential to rectify the alcohol using distillation to ensure it is pure.

  • The chemist plans to rectify the mixture by separating out the unwanted elements through distillation.

Synonyms

to purify
vsto rectify
28 4.6

To remove dirt and bad chemicals from water or air to make them clean

focuses on technical purification often involving distillation
to refine
vsto rectify
  • Specialized
14 3.9

Remove unwanted parts from a material to make it pure

emphasizes technical purification often using distillation
to redistill
vsto rectify
  • Specialized
1 7.7

To boil a liquid again and collect the steam to make it purer

uses distillation as one method but covers other purification processes

Antonyms

to contaminate
63 4.9

To make things like water or soil unsafe by adding harmful substances

How Pure

to rectify
  • Specialized
1 7.7
to clean
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

rectify infinitive
rectified past
rectified past participle
rectifying present participle
rectifies third person singular

Morphology

rectify = rect + ify

The sense 'purify by distillation' is a specialized/technical meaning (make pure) that most learners will not derive from the morphemes alone despite the productive suffix '-ify'.

Etymology

Rectify comes from the Latin root rect- meaning 'right' or 'straight', the same root you see in correct. So to rectify a liquid or substance is to 'make it right' by removing bad parts, which is why it means 'to purify'.