English Meaning & Definitions
The quality or state of being carried out with a minimum of effort, reflection, or enthusiasm; mechanical performance or superficiality.
- “She performed her daily safety check with a cold perfunctoriness that concerned her supervisor.”
- “The manager's perfunctoriness during the employee's final review left everyone feeling unvalued.”
English Synonyms & Near Equivalents
English Antonyms & Opposites
Comprehensive Thesaurus Breakdown
Compare formal, informal, literary synonyms and register nuances for “perfunctoriness”.
Derived from the adjective 'perfunctory', which comes from the Latin 'perfunctorius' meaning 'careless' or 'superficial', literally 'done with a to-do' or 'to get through with an office', from 'perfungi' (to perform, discharge, finish), combining 'per-' (thoroughly) and 'fungi' (to perform).
Think of 'per-function-ary'—doing a job purely by function without any heart, just going through the motions.
Frequently Asked Questions About “perfunctoriness”
1. What is the meaning of “perfunctoriness” in English?
In English, perfunctoriness (noun) is defined as: “The quality or state of being carried out with a minimum of effort, reflection, or enthusiasm; mechanical performance or superficiality.”.
2. How do you use “perfunctoriness” in a sentence?
“She performed her daily safety check with a cold perfunctoriness that concerned her supervisor.”
3. What are English synonyms of “perfunctoriness”?
4. What is the etymology and word origin of “perfunctoriness”?
Derived from the adjective 'perfunctory', which comes from the Latin 'perfunctorius' meaning 'careless' or 'superficial', literally 'done with a to-do' or 'to get through with an office', from 'perfungi' (to perform, discharge, finish), combining 'per-' (thoroughly) and 'fungi' (to perform).
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