Meaning & use
immaculate
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Meanings
adjectivenot comparable
Perfectly clean, neat, and carefully kept, with no dirt or disorder.
Grammar: Usually not modified by very or more; use absolutely or choose spotless when gradable emphasis is needed.
Patterns
- an immaculate room
- immaculate condition
- look immaculate
- dressed immaculately
The guest room was immaculate, down to the folded towels.
She arrived in an immaculate white suit.
The old car is still in immaculate condition.
adjectivenot comparable
Free from mistakes, faults, or blemishes; perfect in performance or record.
Grammar: Often modifies record, timing, or performance; still avoids very in careful writing.
Patterns
- an immaculate record
- immaculate timing
- an immaculate performance
- an immaculate reputation
The goalkeeper kept an immaculate record this season.
Her timing was immaculate throughout the interview.
The violinist gave an immaculate performance.
Common combinations
- immaculate condition
- The used camera was listed in immaculate condition.
- immaculate house
- Their immaculate house surprised everyone after the party.
- immaculate record
- The clinic maintained an immaculate safety record.
- immaculate timing
- With immaculate timing, she arrived just as the doors opened.
- immaculately dressed
- He was immaculately dressed for the ceremony.
Synonyms and how they differ
- spotless
- Spotless is the closest literal synonym for cleanliness; immaculate also suggests careful order.
- flawless
- Flawless stresses absence of defects and fits records or performances better than rooms.
- pristine
- Pristine means original and untouched, like new; immaculate means perfectly maintained now.
- impeccable
- Impeccable fits manners, taste, or standards; immaculate fits physical cleanliness and error-free records.
Opposites
Word family
- immaculately adverb
- In a perfect, faultless way.
- immaculacy noun
- The state of being immaculate; formal and uncommon.
Commonly confused: immaculate or immediate? immaculate or emasculate?
immaculate vs immediate
Immediate means instant or nearest in time or space; immaculate shares letters but means perfectly clean or faultless.
immaculate vs emasculate
Emasculate is unrelated and means weaken or deprive of force; spelling similarity can mislead.
Practice
Choose the best completion: Her attendance record is ___: she has never missed a day.
Choose one answer.
Immaculate is absolute, so it normally stands without very, more, or fairly; the other choices wrongly suggest degrees of perfection.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “immaculate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.