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perfectibility

American  
[per-fekt-uh-bil-i-tee] / pərˌfɛkt əˈbɪl ɪ ti /

noun

  1. the quality or state of being able to be made perfect or free of defects.

  2. the quality or state of being able to be improved.


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Johnson’s faith in human perfectibility, he told me, inspired him to work to regain his strength.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 5, 2024

Technology holds out the promise of human perfectibility, but, as far as Ishiguro is concerned, it is a promise we must resist.

From New York Times • Feb. 23, 2021

Some see this as a triumph, progress towards the elimination of error and perfectibility.

From The Guardian • May 7, 2020

Wealthy and well-educated colonists embraced the ideas of the European Enlightenment, which honored science and reason and stressed the perfectibility of human nature.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

Encoded in that molecule were the loci of human perfectibility and vulnerability: once we learned to manipulate this chemical, we would rewrite our nature.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee