perfection

[ per-fek-shuhn ]
See synonyms for perfection on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the state or quality of being or becoming perfect.

  2. the highest degree of proficiency, skill, or excellence, as in some art.

  1. a perfect embodiment or example of something.

  2. a quality, trait, or feature of the highest degree of excellence.

  3. the highest or most nearly perfect degree of a quality or trait.

  4. the act or fact of perfecting.

Origin of perfection

1
1175–1225; <Latin perfectiōn- (stem of perfectiō) a finishing (see perfect, -ion); replacing Middle English perfectiun, perfeccioun<Anglo-French <Latin, as above

Other words from perfection

  • hy·per·per·fec·tion, noun
  • non·per·fec·tion, noun
  • su·per·per·fec·tion, noun

Words Nearby perfection

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use perfection in a sentence

  • 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.

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

    Glances at Europe | Horace Greeley
  • In a population of angels a socialistic commonwealth would work to perfection.

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

    Napoleon's Marshals | R. P. Dunn-Pattison
  • The reader may judge of the perfection of mechanism in this plain-looking engine from the fact that a pole, with 150 lbs.

British Dictionary definitions for perfection

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

  1. an embodiment of perfection

Origin of perfection

1
C13: from Latin perfectiō a completing, from perficere to finish

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012