Imperfective

//ˌɪmpɚˈfɛktɪv// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The imperfective aspect; a verb having this aspect.

    "Examples of past imperfectives are shown in (42)."

  2. 2
    aspect without regard to the beginning or completion of the action of the verb wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of, relating to or having the properties of the imperfective aspect. not-comparable

    "In the last chapter, we observed the rise of an imperfective marker in English, the Progressive, as the dominant and surviving member of a wider paradigm of imperfective aspectual functions in Old English, but which were no longer marked in the same way in later stages of the history of English."

Synonyms

All synonyms
aspectimperfective aspectpast continuous

Example

More examples

"When learning Russian, it's important to understand the difference between perfective and imperfective verbs."

Related phrases

imperfective aspect

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.