perfectly

English

Alternative forms

• perfightly, perfightlie (obsolete)

Etymology

Etymology tree

English perfect

Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der.

Proto-Germanic *līkąder.

Proto-Germanic *-līkaz

Proto-Germanic *-ê

Proto-Germanic *-līkê

Proto-West Germanic *-līkē

Old English -līċe

Middle English -ly

English -ly

English perfectly

From perfect + -ly.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɜː.fɪk(t).li/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɝ.fɪk(t).li/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (Appalachians, obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑɹ.fɪk(t).lɪ/
• (Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈpɜː.fɪk(t).li/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈpøː.fək(t).li/

Adverb

perfectly (comparative more perfectly, superlative most perfectly)

1. With perfection.

   They completed the first series perfectly.

2. Wholly, completely, totally.

   Their performance was perfectly fine.

   • 1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 6:

     The Gentiles would not perfectly relinquish all their Idols; so, they were persuaded to turne the Image of Jupiter with his thunderbolt to Christus crucifixus, and Venus and Cupid to the Madonna and her Babe.

   • 1899, Knut Hamsun, “Part III”, in George Egerton [pseudonym; Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright], transl., Hunger […], London: Leonard Smithers and Co […], →OCLC, page 168:

     I was perfectly stunned. I sat and moistened my lips a little, but otherwise made no effort to do anything: my chest was in a pitiful state.

   • 2011 November 12, “International friendly: England 1 – 0 Spain”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     James Milner's angled free-kick was headed on to the post by the tireless [Darren] Bent and [Frank] Lampard the opportunist was perfectly placed to stoop and head in from virtually on the goal-line.

   • 2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 4:

     The route taken does not have to be a perfectly straight line, just so long as it is linear and is followed consistently for each transect taken.

Derived terms

• imperfectly
• perfectly elastic supply
• perfectly inelastic supply
• pitch-perfectly

Collocations

Some adjectives commonly collocating with perfectly:

• perfectly willing
• perfectly safe
• perfectly well
• perfectly healthy
• perfectly obvious
• perfectly able
• perfectly capable
• perfectly clear
• perfectly normal
• perfectly understandable

Translations

with perfection

• Arabic: بِإِتْقَان (biʔitqān), تَمَامًا (tamāman)
• Belarusian: выда́тна (vydátna), бездако́рна (bjezdakórna)
• Bulgarian: отли́чно (bg) (otlíčno)
• Catalan: perfectament (ca)
• Czech: dokonale (cs)
• Dutch: perfect (nl)
• Esperanto: perfekte
• Finnish: täydellisesti (fi)
• French: parfaitement (fr)
• Galician: perfectamente
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: perfekt (de), einwandfrei (de)
• Greek: τέλεια (el) (téleia)

  Ancient Greek: εἰς ὄνυχα (eis ónukha)

• Hungarian: tökéletesen (hu)
• Italian: perfettamente (it), propriamente (it)
• Latin: perfectē, ad unguem
• Norwegian: perfekt (no)
• Polish: doskonale (pl)
• Portuguese: perfeitamente (pt)
• Russian: отли́чно (ru) (otlíčno), прекра́сно (ru) (prekrásno), безупре́чно (ru) (bezupréčno), в соверше́нстве (ru) (v soveršénstve), безукори́зненно (ru) (bezukoríznenno)
• Slovak: dokonale
• Spanish: perfectamente (es)
• Swedish: perfekt (sv)
• Ukrainian: бездога́нно (uk) (bezdohánno), відмі́нно (vidmínno)

wholly, completely

• Bulgarian: съвърше́но (bg) (săvăršéno)
• Finnish: täysin (fi), täydellisen (fi), kaikin puolin (fi)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: vollkommen (de), durchaus (de)
• Italian: totalmente (it)
• Portuguese: perfeitamente (pt)
• Russian: соверше́нно (ru) (soveršénno), по́лностью (ru) (pólnostʹju), целико́м (ru) (celikóm), абсолю́тно (ru) (absoljútno)
• Spanish: perfectamente (es)
• Ukrainian: цілко́м (uk) (cilkóm), цілкови́то (uk) (cilkovýto), абсолю́тно (uk) (absoljútno)