perfection

From Old French perfection, from Latin perfectiō.

• (US) IPA^(key): /pɚˈfɛkʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkʃən

perfection (countable and uncountable, plural perfections)

1. The quality or state of being perfect or complete, so that nothing substandard remains; the highest attainable state or degree of excellence

   We seek complete perfection.

   The system runs to perfection.

   to imitate a model to perfection

2. A quality, endowment, or acquirement completely excellent; an ideal; faultlessness; especially, the divine attribute of complete excellence.
   • Philip Sidney

     What tongue can her perfections tell?

• 1784, William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c., PREFACE

  THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Perſons of the firſt diſtinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ſeveral new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and diſtinguiſh it from others ; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.

• faultlessness
• infallibility

perfection (third-person singular simple present perfections, present participle perfectioning, simple past and past participle perfectioned)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To perfect.
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Foote to this entry?)
   • William Woty

     Sooner I'd kneel unto the modern nine / Alike perfectioned, though a virgin's name / They cannot boast […]

• perfection in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

From Latin perfectiō.

• IPA^(key): /pɛʁ.fɛk.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

perfection f (uncountable)

1. perfection

• parfait
• parfaitement

• “perfection” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

perfection f (plural perfections)

1. perfection