noun · informal
perfectionist
UK/pəˈfek.ʃən.ɪst/US/pɚˈfek.ʃən.ɪst/per·FEC·tion·ist
a person who will not accept any standard short of perfection
Examples
“My sister is a perfectionist; she rewrites essays until every sentence is right.”
“Being a perfectionist can make you reliable but also very stressed.”
“Teachers sometimes label students perfectionists when they spend too long on details.”
Band 8 sentence
“As a perfectionist, he often misses deadlines because he refuses to submit anything imperfect.”
Collocations
- a bit of a perfectionist
- a perfectionist approach
- perfectionist tendencies
Word family
Common mistakes
She is perfectionist.→She is a perfectionist.
He has perfectionist.→He is a perfectionist.
perfectionist person→perfectionist
Say it for a higher band
5fussy→6meticulous→7+perfectionist
Synonyms
stickler
Easily confused
stickler
“He is a stickler for punctuality and never arrives late.”
meticulous person
“She is very meticulous when preparing reports.”
Related words
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In -ist
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