| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| perfect |
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| SYLLABICATION: | per·fect |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  pûr f kt |
| ADJECTIVE: | 1. Lacking nothing essential to the whole; complete of its nature or kind. 2. Being without defect or blemish: a perfect specimen. 3. Thoroughly skilled or talented in a certain field or area; proficient. 4. Completely suited for a particular purpose or situation: She was the perfect actress for the part. 5a. Completely corresponding to a description, standard, or type: a perfect circle; a perfect gentleman. b. Accurately reproducing an original: a perfect copy of the painting. 6. Complete; thorough; utter: a perfect fool. 7. Pure; undiluted; unmixed: perfect red. 8. Excellent and delightful in all respects: a perfect day. 9. Botany Having both stamens and pistils in the same flower; monoclinous. 10. Grammar Of, relating to, or constituting a verb form expressing action completed prior to a fixed point of reference in time. 11. Music Designating the three basic intervals of the octave, fourth, and fifth. | | NOUN: | 1. Grammar The perfect tense. 2. A verb or verb form in the perfect tense. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: per·fect·ed, per·fect·ing, per·fects
(p r-f kt) To bring to perfection or completion. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English perfit, from Old French parfit, from Latin perfectus, past participle of perficere, to finish : per-, per- + facere, to do; see dh - in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | per·fecter —NOUN
perfect·ness —NOUN
| | SYNONYMS: | perfect, consummate, faultless, flawless, impeccable These adjectives mean being wholly without flaw: a perfect diamond; a consummate performer; faultless logic; a flawless instrumental technique; speaks impeccable French. | | USAGE NOTE: | Some people maintain that perfect is an absolute term like chief and prime, and therefore cannot be modified by more, quite, relatively, and other qualifiers of degree. But the qualification of perfect has many reputable precedents (most notably in the preamble to the U.S. Constitution in the phrase “in order to form a more perfect Union”). By the same token, perfect often means “ideal for the purposes,” as in There could be no more perfect spot for the picnic, where modification by degree makes perfect sense. See Usage Notes at absolute, equal, unique.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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