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Perfect vs Prime - What's the difference?

perfect | prime |

As verbs the difference between perfect and prime

is that perfect is to make perfect; to improve or hone while prime is .

As an adjective perfect

is fitting its definition precisely.

As a noun perfect

is (grammar) the perfect tense, or a form in that tense.

perfect

English

Alternative forms

*

Etymology 1

From (etyl) perfit, from (etyl) parfit (modern: parfait), from (etyl) perfectus, perfect passive participle of . Spelling modified 15c. to conform Latin etymology.

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Fitting its definition precisely.
  • :
  • Having all of its parts in harmony with a common purpose.
  • :
  • Without fault or mistake; thoroughly skilled or talented.
  • :
  • Excellent and delightful in all respects.
  • :
  • *
  • *:They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect . And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.
  • Representing a completed action.
  • (lb) Sexually mature and fully differentiated.
  • (lb) Of flowers, having both male (stamens) and female (carpels) parts.
  • (lb) Of a set, that it is equal to its set of limit points, i.e. set A'' is perfect if ''A =A'.
  • (lb) Describing an interval or any compound interval of a unison, octave, or fourths and fifths that are not tritones.
  • (lb) Made with equal parts of sweet and dry vermouth.
  • :
  • (lb) Well informed; certain; sure.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:I am perfect that the Pannonians are now in arms.
  • Synonyms
    * (fitting its definition precisely) accurate, flawless * (without fault or mistake) faultless, infallible * (thoroughly skilled or talented) expert, proficient * mature * bisexual, hermaphroditic * See also
    Antonyms
    * (fitting its definition precisely) flawed * (without fault or mistake) faulty, faultful, fallible * imperfect
    Derived terms
    * future perfect * nobody's perfect * past perfect * perfect number * perfect pitch * picture-perfect * pixel-perfect * practice makes perfect * present perfect * word-perfect

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (grammar) The perfect tense, or a form in that tense.
  • Etymology 2

    From (perfect) (adjective) or from (etyl)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make perfect; to improve or hone.
  • I am going to perfect this article.
    You spend too much time trying to perfect your dancing.
  • (legal) To take an action, usually the filing of a document in the correct venue, that secures a legal right.
  • perfect''' an appeal''; '''''perfect''' an interest''; '''''perfect a judgment
    Synonyms
    * (to make perfect) enhance, hone, improve, optimize

    Statistics

    *

    prime

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) prime, from (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (-)
  • First in importance, degree, or rank.
  • Our prime concern here is to keep the community safe.
  • First in time, order, or sequence
  • Both the English and French governments established prime meridians in their capitals.
  • * Tennyson
  • prime forests
  • * Milton
  • She was not the prime cause, but I myself.
  • First in excellence, quality, or value.
  • This is a prime location for a bookstore.
  • (mathematics, lay) Having exactly two integral factors: itself and unity (1 in the case of integers).
  • Thirteen is a prime number.
  • (mathematics, technical) Such that if it divides a product, it divides one of the multiplicands.
  • (mathematics) Having its complement closed under multiplication: said only of ideals.
  • Marked or distinguished by the prime symbol.
  • Early; blooming; being in the first stage.
  • * Milton
  • His starry helm, unbuckled, showed him prime / In manhood where youth ended.
  • (obsolete) Lecherous; lustful; lewd.
  • (Shakespeare)
    Synonyms
    * greatest, most important, main, primary, principal, top * excellent, top quality * earliest, first, original * (having no nontrivial factors) indivisible * (dividing a factor of any product it divides) *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (Christianity, historical) One of the daily offices of prayer of the Western Church, associated with the early morning (typically 6 a.m.).
  • * Spenser
  • Early and late it rung, at evening and at prime .
  • (obsolete) The early morning.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , I.vi:
  • They all as glad, as birdes of ioyous Prime
  • The earliest stage of something.
  • * Hooker
  • in the very prime of the world
  • * Waller
  • Hope waits upon the flowery prime .
  • The most active, thriving, or successful stage or period.
  • * Eustace
  • cut off in their prime
  • * Dryden
  • the prime of youth
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 29, author=Nathan Rabin
  • , title= TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992) , passage=And it’s daunting because each segment has to tell a full, complete story in something like six minutes while doing justice to revered source material and including the non-stop laughs and genius gags that characterized The Simpsons in its god-like prime .}}
  • * 1965 , (Bob Dylan), (Like a Rolling Stone)
  • Once upon a time you dressed so fine. You threw the bums a dime in your prime , didn’t you?
  • The chief or best individual or part.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • Give him always of the prime .
  • (music) The first note or tone of a musical scale.
  • (fencing) The first defensive position, with the sword hand held at head height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
  • (algebra, number theory) A prime element of a mathematical structure, particularly a prime number.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Sarah Glaz
  • , title= Ode to Prime Numbers , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’' cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving ' primes .}}
  • (card games) A four-card hand containing one card of each suit in the game of primero; the opposite of a flush in poker.
  • (backgammon) Six consecutive blocks, which prevent the opponent's pieces from passing.
  • The symbol
  • (chemistry, obsolete) Any number expressing the combining weight or equivalent of any particular element; so called because these numbers were respectively reduced to their lowest relative terms on the fixed standard of hydrogen as 1.
  • An inch, as composed of twelve seconds in the duodecimal system.
  • Synonyms
    * bloom, blossom, efflorescence, flower, flush, heyday, peak * (chief or best individual or part) choice, prize, quality, select * prime number (when an integer)
    Derived terms
    (algebra) * cousin prime * primality * prime constellation * prime number * sexy prime * twin prime

    Etymology 2

    Origin uncertain; perhaps related to primage.

    Verb

    (prim)
  • To prepare a mechanism for its main work.
  • You'll have to press this button twice to prime the fuel pump.
  • To apply a coat of primer paint to.
  • I need to prime these handrails before we can apply the finish coat.
  • (obsolete) To be renewed.
  • * Quarles
  • Night's bashful empress, though she often wane, / As oft repeats her darkness, primes again.
  • To serve as priming for the charge of a gun.
  • (of a steam boiler) To work so that foaming occurs from too violent ebullition, which causes water to become mixed with, and be carried along with, the steam that is formed.
  • To apply priming to (a musket or cannon); to apply a primer to (a metallic cartridge).
  • To prepare; to make ready; to instruct beforehand; to coach.
  • to prime a witness
    The boys are primed for mischief.
    (Thackeray)
  • (UK, dialect, obsolete) To trim or prune.
  • to prime trees
  • (math) To mark with a prime mark.
  • Synonyms
    * (to apply a coat of primer paint to) ground, undercoat

    Derived terms

    * primer

    See also

    * prime contract * prime decomposition * prime factorization * prime number * pseudoprime

    References

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