Impurity [noun]

Iodine tends to react with impurities in salt, causing it to evaporate, so iodized salt becomes less effective over time.

Typically, water freezes below 0° Celsius thanks to impurities, such as dust in the water, on which ice crystals can nucleate.

The principal impurity, and one which renders alum unfit for the use of the dyer, is iron.

Exemplify the sibilant impurity with such syllables as pish, false, traitress, miscreant.

I admired spotlessness, even though I could lay no claim to it, and hated impurity, as I hope I do now.

Is it not there that the evil spirits of impurity spread their nets for thoughtless and unsuspecting youth?

The court of Catharine de' Medici was noted for its impurity, as it was infamous for its recklessness of human life.

There were public lustrations for purifying cities, fields, and people defiled by crime or impurity.

We wonder she was so good—we sorrow at the impurity,—not so much of the beset actress, as of her position.

Each pipe dropped from the lips of its owner as though all had inhaled an impurity at the same instant.