perfectionist
Americannoun
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perfectionists
plural
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a person who adheres to or believes in perfectionism.
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a person who demands perfection of himself, herself, or others.
adjective
noun
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a person who strives for or demands the highest standards of excellence in work, etc
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a person who believes the doctrine of perfectionism
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of perfectionist
First recorded in 1650–60; perfection + -ist
Explanation
A perfectionist is someone with very high standards: they want everything to be just right at all times. You know how perfect things are flawless? A perfectionist wants things to be like that all the time. A writer who is a perfectionist will revise over and over again, trying to get every word just right. A perfectionist boss will be hard on employees who aren't as careful or hard-working. Perfectionists tend to do very good work because of their high standards.
Vocabulary lists containing perfectionist
Barbara Bush (1925 - 2018) Tribute List
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One Crazy Summer
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Spooked
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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.
See Examples For:
“I’m a perfectionist, so I wasn’t feeling confident,” he admits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026
Are these three subtitle terms — codependent, perfectionist, people-pleasing — interchangeable or interlinked?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026
Emery's perfectionist streak makes his management of Villa a work of art, with work-rate, organisation and talent making for a top-class team.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
The Hungarian photographer thought his American peers were overly perfectionist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
Vonetta was a perfectionist, but only about certain things.
From "One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia
For the perfectionists: Back in 2011, Farhad Manjoo argued that “you should never, ever use two spaces after a period.”
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026
"We're all perfectionists and we want to put our best foot forward in every single performance."
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
That intrinsic level of care is present in “Hard Truths,” but without the fussiness that often feels present in films made by notorious perfectionists.
From Salon ● Jan. 10, 2025
Yuxin Sun, a psychologist in Seattle, sees a lot of clients at her group practice who insist they aren’t perfectionists.
From New York Times ● Apr. 11, 2024
“And it’s a temptation for any intelligent person, and especially for perfectionists such as the ancients and ourselves, to try to murder the primitive, emotive, appetitive self. But that is a mistake.”
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
