Dictionary
Thesaurus
Encyclopedia
Translator
Web
Definition of pluperfect - 2 dictionary results

plu⋅per⋅fect

[ploo-pur-fikt]
–adjective
1. Grammar.
a. perfect with respect to a point of reference in past time, as had done in He had done it when I came.
b. designating a tense or other verb formation or construction with such meaning, as Latin portāveram “I had carried.”
2. more than perfect: He spoke the language with pluperfect precision.
–noun Grammar.
3.
a. the pluperfect tense, or other verb formation or construction with such meaning.
b. a form in the pluperfect.

Origin:
1520–30; < L plū(s quam) perfectum (more than) perfect, trans. of Gk hypersyntelikós
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To pluperfect
plu·per·fect   (plōō-pûr'fĭkt)   
adj.  
  1. Of or being a verb tense used to express action completed before a specified or implied past time.

  2. More than perfect; supremely accomplished; ideal: "He has won a reputation as [a] pluperfect bureaucrat" (New York Times).

n.  
  1. The pluperfect tense, formed in English with the past participle of a verb and the auxiliary had, as had learned in the sentence He had learned to type by the end of the semester. Also called past perfect.

  2. A verb or form in the pluperfect tense.


[Middle English pluperfyth, alteration of Latin plūs quam perfectum, more than perfect : plūs, more; see pelə-1 in Indo-European roots + quam, than + perfectum, neuter past participle of perficere, to complete; see perfect.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Search another word or see pluperfect on Thesaurus | Reference
FacebookTwitterFollow us: