Perfectionist
//pɚˈfɛk.ʃənɪst// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Someone who is unwilling to settle for anything that is not perfect or does not meet extremely high standards.
- 2 a person who is displeased by anything that does not meet very high standards wordnet
- 3 Someone who thinks that religious or moral perfection can be attained in this life. archaic
"I have read in some of our perfectionists enough to make a better man than myself either run into madness or despair about the grace you mention […]."
- 4 One of the Bible Communists or Free-lovers, a small American sect founded by J. H. Noyes (1811-86), which settled at Oneida in 1848, holding that the gospel if accepted secures freedom from sin. US, historical
Adjective
- 1 Demanding perfection; being a perfectionist; imposing overly high standards.
"perfectionistic parents"
- 2 Inclined or related to perfectionism.
Example
More examples"I actually voted that I'm not a perfectionist, though. I have some of the signs on the list to a high degree but I'm not entirely motivated by perfection."
Etymology
From perfection + -ist.
More for "perfectionist"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.