Meaning & use
pure gold
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountabletechnical
Gold with nothing else mixed in it, measured as twenty-four carat.
Grammar: Mass noun: a ring of pure gold.
Patterns
- made of pure gold
The crown was cast in pure gold, which made it very soft.
Jewelers rarely use pure gold because it bends easily.
The coin is stamped as 99.9 percent pure gold.
noununcountableinformalfigurativeapproving
Something or someone extremely good, valuable or delightful, especially an amusing remark or performance.
Grammar: Often used after is or was: that joke was pure gold.
Patterns
- something is pure gold
Her answer in the interview was pure gold, and everyone laughed.
The old photographs are pure gold for our family history.
Honestly, your advice was pure gold.
Common combinations
- solid pure gold
- The trophy looks heavy but is not solid pure gold.
- pure gold bar
- A pure gold bar sat in the museum case.
- comedy pure gold
- That scene is comedy pure gold.
- worth pure gold
- A friend like her is worth pure gold.
- nothing but pure gold
- The recording is nothing but pure gold.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fine gold
- It is the technical trade term for gold of very high purity, and sounds less playful than pure gold.
- priceless
- It describes value too great to measure, while pure gold praises something as excellent.
- a treasure
- It fits people and objects that are loved, and does not carry the humorous sense of pure gold.
- terrific
- It is a general positive word, while pure gold suggests unusually valuable or entertaining.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: pure gold or fool's gold?
pure gold vs fool's gold
Fool's gold is iron pyrite, which looks like gold but is worthless, while pure gold is the real thing.
Practice
After the speech, my friend whispered that the story about the lost luggage was ___.
Choose one answer.
Calling a funny or valuable story pure gold is praise. Fool's gold means something that only looks valuable, which would be an insult.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pure gold”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.