perfect definition

1. Brought to consummation or completeness; completed; not defective nor redundant; having all the properties or qualities requisite to its nature and kind; without flaw, fault, or blemish; without error; mature; whole; pure; sound; right; correct. "My strength is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor. Xii. 9) "Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun." (Shak) "I fear I am not in my perfect mind." (Shak) "O most entire perfect sacrifice!" (Keble) "God made thee perfect, not immutable." (Milton)

2. Well informed; certain; sure. "I am perfect that the Pannonains are now in arms." (Shak)

3. <botany> Hermaphrodite; having both stamens and pistils; said of flower. Perfect cadence, a concord or union of sounds which is perfectly coalescent and agreeable to the ear, as the unison, octave, fifth, and fourth; a perfect consonance; a common chord in its original position of keynote, third, fifth, and octave.

<mathematics> Perfect number, a tense which expresses an act or state completed.

Synonyms: Finished, consummate, complete, entire, faultless, blameless, unblemished.

Origin: OE. Parfit, OF. Parfit, parfet, parfait, F. Parfait, L. Perfectus, p.p. Of perficere to carry to the end, to perform, finish, perfect; per (see Per-) + facere = to make, do. See Fact.

(01 Mar 1998)