How to Use purely in a Sentence

purely

adverb
  • It was purely and simply a matter of greed.
  • The organization's mission, purely and simply, is to provide food to people who need it.
  • They met purely by accident.
  • Don’t shop purely on list price.
    — Allison Palmer, Miami Herald, 22 Dec. 2025
  • When a scene is purely comedic, there’s a lot more room for fun runs like that.
    — Antonia Blyth, Deadline, 10 June 2025
  • As in pro wrestling, any fight to the finish is purely for show.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 31 Mar. 2021
  • Henry turned off that new gospel to leave purely the sound of the mitts.
    — Tyler R. Tynes, Los Angeles Times, 27 Apr. 2023
  • But no child’s body should be framed purely as a problem to be solved.
    — Emma Specter, Vogue, 1 Feb. 2023
  • This may have been one of our worst ideas based purely on how quickly the stock fell apart.
    — Josh Brown,sean Russo, CNBC, 29 June 2026
  • This is not to say that this cyclical conflict is purely based on age.
    — Sho Dewan, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024
  • They are powered purely by your child pushing off the ground.
    — Bestreviews, Mercury News, 23 Feb. 2026
  • This list is purely for fun and may apply to first-borns of any gender.
    — Suzy Exposito, Los Angeles Times, 21 Dec. 2023
  • Some tourists would board purely for the novelty of the route.
    — Anna Noryskiewicz, CBS News, 1 June 2026
  • But Boss isn’t purely top-down driven.
    — Jeff Marks, CNBC, 27 Oct. 2025
  • That there’s importance to be found in the purely fun stuff.
    — Hannah Keyser, CNN Money, 9 Feb. 2026
  • So there’s one way to view this, which is through a purely financial lens.
    — Torie Bosch, STAT, 11 Apr. 2026
  • That epiphany was purely happenstance like all the best things.
    — Kristen Shirley, Forbes, 31 Oct. 2021
  • And so that’s the sort of the first thing, the purely financial side.
    — Torie Bosch, STAT, 11 Apr. 2026
  • But here too there is more to it than the purely post-colonial and racist reading.
    — Ed Meza, Variety, 18 Feb. 2024
  • What used to read as purely preppy now feels more wearable for day-to-day.
    — Daisy Maldonado, InStyle, 14 Apr. 2026
  • Its job is purely to impose a strong electric field across the air gap and the frost.
    — Tejasri Gururaj, Interesting Engineering, 30 Dec. 2025
  • So drafts are more purely player picking.
    — Michael Salfino, New York Times, 11 Mar. 2026
  • Your eye has something gentle to look at as opposed to a purely blank wall.
    — Melissa Epifano, The Spruce, 30 Jan. 2026
  • Neto purely takes corners from the right.
    — Liam Tharme, New York Times, 14 Jan. 2026
  • Her love of the game and drive to improve was coming purely from within.
    — Charles Baggarly april 2, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 2 Apr. 2026
  • The point of this change isn’t purely to buff him or counterbalance the nerfs.
    — Kris Holt, Forbes, 5 May 2022
  • Policies are rarely purely good, and the ban is likely to result in trade-offs.
    — Keith Humphreys, The Atlantic, 2 Feb. 2026
  • That’s because the color of an egg is based purely on the color of the hen that laid it.
    — Terry Baddoo, USA TODAY, 25 Jan. 2023
  • King Charles isn’t a purely Parmigiani guy.
    — Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 25 Feb. 2026
  • Viewed purely as a pointing device, the price may seem somewhat high.
    — Sascha Brodsky, PC Magazine, 21 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'purely.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: