perfection

[ per-fek-shuhn ]

noun

1. the state or quality of being or becoming perfect.
2. the highest degree of proficiency, skill, or excellence, as in some art.
3. a perfect embodiment or example of something.
4. a quality, trait, or feature of the highest degree of excellence.
5. the highest or most nearly perfect degree of a quality or trait.
6. the act or fact of perfecting.

perfection

/ pəˈfɛkʃən /

noun

1. the act of perfecting or the state or quality of being perfect
2. the highest degree of a quality, etc

   the perfection of faithfulness

3. an embodiment of perfection

Other Words From

• hyper·per·fection noun
• nonper·fection noun
• super·per·fection noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of perfection¹

First recorded in 1175–1225; from Latin perfectiōn-, stem of perfectiō “completion, finishing”; equivalent to perfect + -ion; replacing Middle English perfeccioun, perfectiun, from Anglo-French, from Latin, as above

Word History and Origins

Origin of perfection¹

C13: from Latin perfectiō a completing, from perficere to finish

Example Sentences

But whereas we used to be satisfied gazing on that perfection as it stood up on a pedestal, now we want it down among us.

From The Daily Beast

It was a reminder that, as Beyoncé once sang, “Perfection is the disease of a nation,” and her family is hardly flawless.

From The Daily Beast

Sometimes, that intense social judgment, that expectation of saintly loving maternal perfection, can destroy a mother.

From The Daily Beast

And many point to the hyper-stylized ones in Playboy magazine as models of pussy perfection, he says.

From The Daily Beast

This statement is meant to clarify the story of Adam and Eve, specifying their original perfection and subsequent fall into sin.

From The Daily Beast

It was not an exalted niche to fill in life, but at least she had learned to fill it to perfection, and her ambitions were modest.

From Project Gutenberg

I did not find the Aristocracy so remarkable for physical perfection and beauty as I had been taught to expect.

From Project Gutenberg

In a population of angels a socialistic commonwealth would work to perfection.

From Project Gutenberg

The task of deceiving the Austrians was performed to perfection by Murat with the reserve cavalry and Lannes's corps.

From Project Gutenberg

The reader may judge of the perfection of mechanism in this plain-looking engine from the fact that a pole, with 150 lbs.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• accomplishment
• evolution
• excellence
• fulfillment
• ideal
• integrity
• precision
• purity
• quality
• superiority
• supremacy
• transcendence
• virtue