imperfect

English

Etymology

From Middle English imperfit, from Old French imparfit (modern French imparfait), from Latin imperfectus. Spelling modified 15c. to conform Latin etymology. See im- +‎ perfect.

Pronunciation

• (adjective, noun) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɜː(ɹ)fɪkt/, /ɪmˈpɜː(ɹ)fɛkt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (verb) IPA^(key): /ɪmpə(ɹ)ˈfɛkt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Adjective

imperfect (comparative more imperfect, superlative most imperfect)

1. not perfect

   Synonyms: defective, fallible, faultful, faulty

   Antonyms: faultless, infallible, perfect

   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi]:

     Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Nothing imperfet or deficient left
     Of all that he Created.

   • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:

     Then say not man's imperfect, Heaven in fault; / Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought.

2. (botany) unisexual: having either male (with stamens) or female (with pistil) flowers, but not with both.

   Antonym: perfect

3. (taxonomy) known or expected to be polyphyletic, as of a form taxon.
4. (obsolete) lacking some elementary organ that is essential to successful or normal activity.
   • 1653, Jeremy Taylor, “Twenty-five Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Winter Half-year, […]: Sermon III. [Doomsday Book; or, Christ’s Advent to Judgment.] Part III.”, in Reginald Heber, editor, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D. […], volume V, London: Ogle, Duncan, and Co. […]; and Richard Priestley, […], published 1822, →OCLC, page 35:

     When the prophet Joel was describing the formidable accidents in the day of the Lord's judgment, and the fearful sentence of an angry Judge, he was not able to express it, but stammered like a child, or an amazed, imperfect person.

5. (grammar) belonging to a tense of verbs used in describing a past action that is incomplete or continuous

Derived terms

• imperfect fungi
• imperfect indicative
• imperfect rhyme
• imperfect subjunctive
• imperfect tense
• imperfect time
• past imperfect tense
• present imperfect

 

Related terms

• imperfection

Translations

not perfect

• Asturian: imperfeutu
• Azerbaijani: qeyri-kamil
• Bulgarian: незавършен (bg) (nezavǎršen), несъвършен (bg) (nesǎvǎršen)
• Catalan: imperfecte (ca)
• Czech: nedokonalý (cs) m
• Dutch: imperfect (nl), onvolmaakt (nl)
• Finnish: vajavainen (fi), epätäydellinen (fi)
• French: imparfait (fr)
• Galician: imperfecto m
• German: unvollkommen (de), mangelhaft (de), unvollständig (de), fehlerhaft (de)
• Greek: ατελής (el) m or f (atelís), ελλιπής (el) m or f (ellipís), πλημμελής (el) m or f (plimmelís), ελαττωματικός (el) m (elattomatikós)
• Hebrew: לֹא מוּשְלָם (lo mushlám)
• Hungarian: tökéletlen (hu)
• Indonesian: tidak sempurna
• Irish: anfhoirfe
• Italian: imperfetto (it) m, imperfetta (it) f
• Japanese: 不完全な (ja) (fukanzen na)
• Khmer: ខ្ចោះ (km) (kcɑh)
• Latin: imperfectus
• Maori: takarepa, nawe, kōkau, tōrōkiri
• Old English: unfulfremed
• Plautdietsch: onvollkomen
• Polish: niedoskonały (pl)
• Portuguese: imperfeito (pt)
• Romanian: imperfect (ro) m or n
• Russian: несоверше́нный (ru) (nesoveršénnyj)
• Spanish: imperfecto (es)
• Tagalog: balhag, dihimpit
• Ukrainian: недоскона́лий (nedoskonályj)

unisexual — see unisexual

(grammar) belonging to a tense of verbs used in describing a past action that is incomplete or continuous

• Albanian: E pakryer
• Esperanto: imperfekta sg
• French: imparfait (fr) m
• Greek:

  Ancient: παρατατικός (paratatikós)

• Hebrew: לֹא נִשְׁלָם (lo nishlám)
• Hungarian: folyamatos (hu), befejezetlen (hu)
• Italian: imperfetto (it) m
• Latin: imperfectus
• Serbo-Croatian: nesavršen (sh)
• Sicilian: mpirfettu m
• Walloon: durant (wa) m

Noun

imperfect (plural imperfects)

1. something having a minor flaw
2. (grammar) a tense of verbs used in describing a past action that is incomplete or continuous

   Synonym: preterimperfect

Derived terms

• imperfective

Translations

something having a minor flaw

• Finnish: sekunda (fi)
• Greek: υποτυπώδης (el) m (ypotypódis)

past tense

• Albanian: E pakryer
• Arabic: ناقص-غير كامل
• Armenian: անկատար (hy) (ankatar)
• Bulgarian: ми́нало несвърше́но вре́ме n (mínalo nesvǎršéno vréme), имперфе́кт m (imperfékt), и́мперфект m (ímperfekt)
• Catalan: imperfet (ca) m
• Dutch: onvoltooid verleden tijd (nl) m
• Esperanto: imperfekto
• Finnish: imperfekti (fi)
• French: imparfait (fr) m
• Galician: imperfecto m
• German: Imperfekt (de) n, Imperfektum n
• Greek: παρατατικός (el) m (paratatikós)

  Ancient: παρατατικός m (paratatikós)

• Hebrew: עָבָר לֹא מֻגְמָר m (‘avár lo mugmár)
• Hungarian: imperfektum, folyamatos múlt, elbeszélő múlt
• Italian: imperfetto (it) m
• Latin: tempus praeteritum imperfectum n, tempus imperfectum n, praeteritum imperfectum n, imperfectum n
• Persian: ناقص (fa) (nâqes)
• Portuguese: imperfeito (pt) m
• Romanian: imperfect (ro) n
• Russian: имперфе́кт (ru) m (imperfékt), несоверше́нное вре́мя n (nesoveršénnoje vrémja)
• Sicilian: mpirfettu m
• Spanish: imperfecto (es) m
• Swedish: imperfekt (sv)

Verb

imperfect (third-person singular simple present imperfects, present participle imperfecting, simple past and past participle imperfected)

1. (transitive) to make imperfect
   • 1651, John Donne, Letter to Henry Goodere, in Letters to Severall Persons of Honour, edited by Charles Edmund Merrill, Jr., New York: Sturgis & Walton, 1910,^[1]

     I write to you from the Spring Garden, whither I withdrew my self to think of this; and the intensenesse of my thinking ends in this, that by my help Gods work should be imperfected, if by any means I resisted the amasement.

   • 1716, Thomas Browne, edited by Samuel Johnson, Christian Morals‎^[2], 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, published 1756, Part I, p. 43:

     Time, which perfects some things, imperfects also others.

   • 1962, Alec Harman, Wilfrid Mellers, Man and His Music: The Story of Musical Experience in the West‎^[3], Oxford University Press, Part I, Chapter 5, p. 126:

     […] such was their desire for greater rhythmic freedom that composers began to use red notes as well. […] Their value was […] restricted at first, for redness implies the imperfecting of a note which is perfect if black […]

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin imperfectus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪm.pɛrˈfɛkt/, /ɪm.pərˈfɛkt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: im‧per‧fect
• Rhymes: -ɛkt

Adjective

imperfect (comparative imperfecter, superlative imperfectst)

1. imperfect (not perfect)

   Synonyms: onvolmaakt, gebrekkig

   Antonyms: perfect, volmaakt

Declension

Declension of imperfect
uninflected	imperfect
inflected	imperfecte
comparative	imperfecter
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		imperfect	imperfecter	het imperfectst het imperfectste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	imperfecte	imperfectere	imperfectste
	n. sing.	imperfect	imperfecter	imperfectste
	plural	imperfecte	imperfectere	imperfectste
definite		imperfecte	imperfectere	imperfectste
partitive		imperfects	imperfecters	—

Related terms

• imperfectie
• imperfectum

 

Romanian

Etymology

From in- +‎ perfect.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /imperˈfekt/.

Adjective

imperfect m or n (feminine singular imperfectă, masculine plural imperfecți, feminine and neuter plural imperfecte)

1. imperfect

   Antonym: perfect

Declension

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	imperfect		imperfectă		imperfecți	imperfecte
	definite	imperfectul		imperfecta		imperfecții	imperfectele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	imperfect		imperfecte		imperfecți	imperfecte
	definite	imperfectului		imperfectei		imperfecților	imperfectilor

Related terms

• imperfecțiune