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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

perfunctory.

Done only or merely to conform to a minimal standard or to fulfill a protocol or presumptive duty.

11 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/pəˈfʌŋk.t(ə)ɹɪ/UK/pɚˈfʌŋk.tɚ.i/US
  1. Done only or merely to conform to a minimal standard or to fulfill a protocol or presumptive duty.

    a perfunctory kiss
  2. Performed in a careless or indifferent manner as a thing of rote.

    He did a perfunctory job cleaning his dad's car, finishing quickly but leaving a few spots still dirty.
Where this word comes from

From Late Latin perfunctōrius (“careless, negligent”), from the past participial stem of perfungor, perfunct- (“perform, carry through”), from per- + fungor.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.