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perfect

Syllabification: (per·fect)
Translate perfect | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of perfect

adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈpərfikt/
  • 1having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be:she strove to be the perfect wife life certainly isn’t perfect at the moment
  • free from any flaw or defect in condition or quality; faultless:the equipment was in perfect condition
  • precisely accurate; exact:a perfect circle
  • highly suitable for someone or something; exactly right:Gary was perfect for her—ten years older and with his own career
  • Printing denoting a way of binding books in which pages are glued to the spine rather than sewn together.
  • dated thoroughly trained in or conversant with:she was perfect in French
  • 2 [attributive] absolute; complete (used for emphasis):a perfect stranger all that Joseph said made perfect sense to me
  • 3 Mathematics (of a number) equal to the sum of its positive divisors, e.g., the number 6, whose divisors (1, 2, 3) also add up to 6.
  • 4 Grammar (of a tense) denoting a completed action or a state or habitual action that began in the past. The perfect tense is formed in English with have or has and the past participle, as in they have eaten and they have been eating (since dawn) ( present perfect), they had eaten ( past perfect), and they will have eaten ( future perfect).
  • 5 Botany (of a flower) having both stamens and carpels present and functional.
  • Botany denoting the stage or state of a fungus in which the sexually produced spores are formed.
  • Entomology (of an insect) fully adult and (typically) winged.

verb

Pronunciation: /pərˈfekt/
[with object]
  • make (something) completely free from faults or defects, or as close to such a condition as possible:he’s busy perfecting his bowling technique
  • archaic bring to completion; finish.
  • complete (a printed sheet of paper) by printing the second side.
  • Law satisfy the necessary conditions or requirements for the transfer of (a gift, title, etc.):equity will not perfect an imperfect gift

noun

Pronunciation: /ˈpərfikt/
(the perfect) Grammar
  • the perfect tense.

Derivatives

perfecter

Pronunciation: /pərˈfektər/
noun

perfectibility

noun

perfectible

Pronunciation: /pərˈfektəbəl/
adjective

perfectness

Pronunciation: /ˈpərfək(t)nəs/
noun

Origin:

Middle English: from Old French perfet, from Latin perfectus 'completed', from the verb perficere, from per- 'through, completely' + facere 'do'

In the literal sense, perfect and unique are absolute words and should not be modified, as they often are in such phrases as most perfect, quite unique, etc. See also unique (usage).

perfect in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of perfect in the British & World English dictionary
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