EN

Synonyms for imperfect

33 synonyms
10 antonyms
4 meanings

adjective
noun

Most common

incomplete faulty defective fallible frail feeble flawed blemished

Synonyms by meaning

Adjective

1. Defective — not perfect

defective, fallible, faulty, incomplete, inadequate, inexact, broken, inaccurate, deficient, short, tainted, faultful, erroneous

2. Weak

weak, frail, feeble, unsound, sick, infirm

Other

flawed, blemished, partial, rudimentary, impure, immature, undeveloped

Noun

1. Past imperfect tense — A tense of verbs used in describing a past action that is incomplete or continuous

past imperfect tense, past imperfect, preterimperfect dated

2. Progressive tense

progressive tense, continuous tense, progressive

Other

past continuous

Antonyms

perfect, complete, ideal

All antonyms of imperfect →

Definitions

adj. 1
Not perfect.
adj. 2
Unisexual: having either male (with stamens) or female (with pistil) flowers, but not with both.
n. 1
A tense of verbs used in describing a past action that is incomplete or continuous.
n. 2
Something having a minor flaw.

Related words

Word family: imperfectly imperfectness imperfection imperfective
Phrases: imperfect tense past imperfect tense past imperfect imperfect fungi

Forms

Plural: imperfects → preterimperfects, progressives…

Example sentences

incomplete He makes judgements based on incomplete knowledge.
faulty Your analysis is predicated on faulty assumptions.
defective They checked to see if the machine was defective.
fallible Zamenhof was a wise but fallible person.
frail Don't embrace me in such a manner. I'm so frail!
feeble The feeble patient is suffering from stomach cancer.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
imperfect		steady
incomplete		steady
faulty		steady
defective		falling
fallible		rising
frail		rising

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

4 letters: sick¹, weak¹
5 letters: short¹, frail¹
6 letters: broken², flawed¹, faulty², feeble², impure², infirm²
7 letters: partial², tainted², unsound², inexact³
8 letters: immature³, fallible³, faultful
9 letters: defective³, deficient³, erroneous⁴, blemished²
10 letters: incomplete³, inadequate⁴, inaccurate⁴
11 letters: progressive³, rudimentary⁵, undeveloped⁴
15 letters: preterimperfect

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (broken² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: imparfait
Italiano: imperfetto
Español: imperfecto
Deutsch: unvollkommen
Català: imperfecte