Found 2 items, similar to pure mathematics.
English → English (WordNet) Definition: pure mathematics pure mathematics n : the branches of mathematics that study and develop the principles of mathematics for their own sake rather than for their immediate usefulness
English → English (gcide) Definition: Pure mathematics Pure \Pure\, a. [Compar. Purer; superl. Purest.] [OE. pur, F. pur, fr. L. purus; akin to putus pure, clear, putare to clean, trim, prune, set in order, settle, reckon, consider, think, Skr. p? to clean, and perh. E. fire. Cf. Putative.] 1. Separate from all heterogeneous or extraneous matter; free from mixture or combination; clean; mere; simple; unmixed; as, pure water; pure clay; pure air; pure compassion. [1913 Webster] The pure fetters on his shins great. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] A guinea is pure gold if it has in it no alloy. --I. Watts. [1913 Webster] 2. Free from moral defilement or quilt; hence, innocent; guileless; chaste; -- applied to persons. “Keep thyself pure.” --1 Tim. v. 22. [1913 Webster] Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience. --1 Tim. i. 5. [1913 Webster] 3. Free from that which harms, vitiates, weakens, or pollutes; genuine; real; perfect; -- applied to things and actions. “Pure religion and impartial laws.” --Tickell. “The pure, fine talk of Rome.” --Ascham. [1913 Webster] Such was the origin of a friendship as warm and pure as any that ancient or modern history records. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster] 4. (Script.) Ritually clean; fitted for holy services. [1913 Webster] Thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord. --Lev. xxiv. 6. [1913 Webster] 5. (Phonetics) Of a single, simple sound or tone; -- said of some vowels and the unaspirated consonants. [1913 Webster] Pure-impure, completely or totally impure. “The inhabitants were pure-impure pagans.” --Fuller. Pure blue. (Chem.) See Methylene blue, under Methylene. Pure chemistry. See under Chemistry. Pure mathematics, that portion of mathematics which treats of the principles of the science, or contradistinction to applied mathematics, which treats of the application of the principles to the investigation of other branches of knowledge, or to the practical wants of life. See Mathematics. --Davies & Peck (Math. Dict. ) Pure villenage (Feudal Law), a tenure of lands by uncertain services at the will of the lord. --Blackstone. [1913 Webster] Syn: Unmixed; clear; simple; real; true; genuine; unadulterated; uncorrupted; unsullied; untarnished; unstained; stainless; clean; fair; unspotted; spotless; incorrupt; chaste; unpolluted; undefiled; immaculate; innocent; guiltless; guileless; holy. [1913 Webster] Abstract \Ab"stract`\ (#; 277), a. [L. abstractus, p. p. of abstrahere to draw from, separate; ab, abs + trahere to draw. See Trace.] 1. Withdraw; separate. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] The more abstract . . . we are from the body. --Norris. [1913 Webster] 2. Considered apart from any application to a particular object; separated from matter; existing in the mind only; as, abstract truth, abstract numbers. Hence: ideal; abstruse; difficult. [1913 Webster] 3. (Logic) (a) Expressing a particular property of an object viewed apart from the other properties which constitute it; -- opposed to concrete; as, honesty is an abstract word. --J. S. Mill. (b) Resulting from the mental faculty of abstraction; general as opposed to particular; as, “reptile” is an abstract or general name. --Locke. [1913 Webster] A concrete name is a name which stands for a thing; an abstract name which stands for an attribute of a thing. A practice has grown up in more modern times, which, if not introduced by Locke, has gained currency from his example, of applying the expression “abstract name” to all names which are the result of abstraction and generalization, and consequently to all general names, instead of confining it to the names of attributes. --J. S. Mill. [1913 Webster] 4. Abstracted; absent in mind. “Abstract, as in a trance.” --Milton. [1913 Webster] An abstract idea (Metaph.), an idea separated from a complex object, or from other ideas which naturally accompany it; as the solidity of marble when contemplated apart from its color or figure. Abstract terms, those which express abstract ideas, as beauty, whiteness, roundness, without regarding any object in which they exist; or abstract terms are the names of orders, genera or species of things, in which there is a combination of similar qualities. Abstract numbers (Math.), numbers used without application to things, as 6, 8, 10; but when applied to any thing, as 6 feet, 10 men, they become concrete. Abstract mathematics or Pure mathematics. See Mathematics. [1913 Webster]