perfect
3
7.7
- noun
- /ˈpɜrfɪkt/
- Specialized
:
perfecto (aspecto verbal)
- Not because the perfect is the enemy of the good, but because, as she said, the word has become such a cliché.
- present perfect
Examples
-
The English language has various tenses, including the perfect aspect, used to discuss past actions.
-
In grammar, the perfect tense indicates that an action has been completed before another one.
-
But the present perfect is not the same thing as used to.
Academic text (2006) -
But the present perfect does not form sequences either:
Academic text (2006) -
The perfect is indeed the enemy of the good, as your comment demonstrates.
Blog text (23) -
Nonetheless, we consistently heard that the perfect should not be the enemy of the good.
Blog text (33) -
The Obama quote offered related to health care reform: 'We can no longer let the perfect be the opponent of the essential.'
Blog text (26) -
He explained the difference between the simple and perfect tenses in his English class.
Synonyms
1
4.2
A verb form that shows an action finished before now or another event
A verb form that shows an action is finished
Idioms
Compounds
- Informal
19
6.0
A situation in which several bad things happen at the same time and make things much worse
- Specialized
15
6.1
A baseball game where the pitcher allows no player from the other team to reach base
5
2.7
A photo taken at the best moment that shows the main thing in the picture clearly
- Specialized
1
3.0
A verb tense that shows an action happened before another past action or time
- Specialized
1
5.5
A verb form showing an action will be finished before a future time
- Literature
1
4.8
The vowel sound and the sound after it at the ends of lines match exactly
- Specialized
1
4.2
A verb form that shows an action finished before now or another event
- Specialized
A verb form that shows an action will finish before a future time
- Specialized
A verb form for an action that finished before another past action
- Specialized
An imagined gas whose particles have no size and do not attract each other, used in physics
- Specialized
A verb form that uses having plus the past form to show an action finished before another
- Specialized
A verb tense using has or have been plus -ing for actions started in the past and still continuing
- Specialized
A verb form using has/have been plus -ing to show an action that started in the past and continues now
- Specialized
A verb tense used to talk about actions that happened before now and still matter
Surface Forms
Etymology
Perfect (grammar) comes from Latin parts per- 'completely' and facere 'to make', so it once meant 'completely made' or finished. That's why the grammatical perfect shows an action that is finished or completed.