Perfunctory

Definitions: Perfunctory

Perfunctory

Adjective

1. Hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough; "a casual (or cursory) inspection failed to reveal the house's structural flaws"; "a passing glance"; "perfunctory courtesy".

2. As a formality only; "a one-candidate pro forma election".

Date "perfunctory" was first used: 1581. (references)

Etymology: Perfunctory \Per*func"to*ry\, adjective. [Latin expression perfunctorius, from perfunctus dispatched, past participle of perfungi to discharge, dispatch; per (see Per) fungi to perform. See Function.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Perfunctory

Synonyms: casual (adj), cursory (adj), passing(a) (adj), pro forma (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Incompleteness	Adjective: incomplete; imperfect; unfinished; uncompleted; (see complete; ); defective, deficient, wanting, lacking, failing; in default, in arrear; short of; hollow, meager, lame, halfand-half, perfunctory, sketchy; crude; (unprepared).
Insufficiency	Adjective: insufficient, inadequate; too little; not enough; unequal to; incompetent; (impotent); " weighed in the balance and found wanting "; perfunctory; (neglect); deficient; (incomplete); wanting; Verb: imperfect; ill-furnished, ill-provided, ill-stored, ill-off.
Neglect	Adjective: neglecting; Verb: unmindful, negligent, neglectful; heedless, careless, thoughtless; perfunctory, remiss; feebleness.
Shortcoming	Adjective: unreached; deficient; short, short of; minus; out of depth; perfunctory; (neglect).
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Perfunctory

English words defined with "perfunctory": civility ♦ Perfunctoriness, Perfuncturate ♦ whitewash, With a bad grace. (references)

Specialty definitions using "perfunctory": HEATHEN. (references)

Subject	Topic	Quote
Civil Liberties	Pakistan	Police investigations of these killings were perfunctory; there were no arrests or convictions in any case. (references)
Indigenous People	Malaysia	Laws allowing condemnation and purchase of land do not require more than perfunctory notifications in newspapers to which indigenous people may have no access. (references)
Political Rights	Cambodia	In practice the Senate's role largely is perfunctory, while the National Assembly is a more credible forum for national debate. (references)
Worker Rights	Indonesia	However, there are credible reports that for many companies, consultations are perfunctory at best and usually only occur with management-selected workers; however, there also are credible reports to the contrary from foreign companies. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	HEATHEN, n. A benighted creature who has the folly to worship something that he can see and feel. According to Professor Howison, of the California State University, Hebrews are heathens. "The Hebrews are heathens!" says Howison. He's A Christian philosopher. I'm A scurril agnostical chap, if you please, Addicted too much to the crime Of religious discussion in my rhyme. Though Hebrew and Howison cannot agree On a modus vivendi -- not they! -- Yet Heaven has had the designing of me, And I haven't been reared in a way To joy in the thick of the fray. For this of my creed is the soul and the gist, And the truth of it I aver: Who differs from me in his faith is an 'ist, And 'ite, an 'ie, or an 'er -- And I'm down upon him or her! Let Howison urge with perfunctory chin Toleration -- that's all very well, But a roast is "nuts" to his nostril thin, And he's running -- I know by the smell -- A secret and personal Hell! Bissell Gip
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Perfunctory" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Perfunctory" is used about 114 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	114	30,294

Expression using "perfunctory": perfunctory inquiry. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "perfunctory"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		sa për formë (perfunctorily), mekanik (air mechanic, engineer, grease monkey, machinal, machinist, mechanic, mechanical, mechanician), i sipërfaqshëm (external, futile, ostensible, superficial, terraneous), i përciptë (cursory, shallow, superficial). (various references)

Arabic		‏لامبال (apathetic, careless, cold-hearted, disinterested, indifferent, insouciant, nonchalant, unconcerned, uninterested), ‏تعوزه الحماسة (half hearted), ‏سطحي (cursory, exterior, external, facile, frothy, peripheral, primary, shallow-minded, sketchy, skin deep, slight, superficial, surface, unexperienced, unintelligent). (various references)

Bulgarian		чисто външен, формален (formal, nominal, technic, technical), нехаен (careless, cavalier, derelict, hit or miss, hit-and-miss, improvident, inadvertent, mindless, negligent, remiss, thoughtless, unmindful, unthinking), небрежен (careless, casual, floppy, heedless, lax, loose, neglectful, neglige, negligent, ragged, raunchy, regardless, remiss, skimpy, slack, slapdash, slipshod, slipslop, sloppy, slovenly, thoughtless, unheeding, untidy), механичен (mechanic, mechanical), повърхностен (airy, blanket, borax, cheap, cursory, dilettante, external, facile, flimsy, frothy, glib, lip-deep, outward, shallow, sketchy, skin deep, slick, subaerial, sublime, superficial, surface, terrain, trumpery, yeasty). (various references)

Chinese		不痛不�' (scratching the surface, superficial). (various references)

Czech		povrchní (airy, casual, cheap, desultory, dollish, facile, frivolous, lip-deep, scrappy, shallow, sketchy, skin deep, superficial), zbìžný (cursory, hurried). (various references)

Farsi		سرسری (Cursory, Superficial), بی مبالات (Remiss), باری بهرجهت . (various references)

Finnish		välinpitämätön (indifferent, negligent, unconcerned, uninterested). (various references)

French		superficiel, sommaire, négligent, fait pour la forme. (various references)

German		oberflächliche (cursory, superficially). (various references)

Greek		μηχανικόσ (engineer, machinist, mechanical, mechanician, robot), επιπόλαιοσ (cursory, flighty, flippant, frivolous, sciolistic, shallow, skin deep, superficial, thoughtless), απρόσεκτοσ (careless, dabbler, heedless, inadvertent, inattentive, incautious, mindless, negligent, reckless, regardless, slap dash, thoughtless, unguarded, unmindful, unwary), απρόθυμοσ (disinclined, half hearted, indisposed, reluctant, unwilling), τυπικόσ (ceremonial, ceremonious, conventional, formal, modal, prim, starched, typical). (various references)

Hebrew		מרושל (careless, frowzy, negligent, slack, slapdash, slipshod, slob, sloppy, slovenly, unkempt), שטחי (cursory, shallow, sketchy, skin deep, superficial, surface), כלאחר י�" (by the way, casual, casually, incidentally, offhand). (various references)

Hungarian		hanyag (derelict, heedless, inadvertent, inattentive, inobservant, inofficious, insouciant, lax, neglectful, negligent, nonchalant, oblivious, remiss, slipshod, sloppy, slow, slubberer), felületes (cursory, desultory, flighty, frivolous, futile, negligent, scratchy, sketchy, skin deep, slipshod, sloppy, smattering, sophomoric, superficial). (various references)

Italian		pro forma, trascurato (careless, forlorn, inaccurate, lax, neglected, neglectful, negligent, remiss, slovenly), superficiale (airy, cosmetic, external, facile, shallow, sketchily, skin deep, superficial), meccanico (machinelike, mechanic, mechanical, mechanician). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		通り一遍 (casual), 御座成り (commonplace). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		おざなり (commonplace), とおりいっぺ�" (casual). (various references)

Manx		tappee (allegro, express, hasty, quick, quick-acting, rapid, speedy, swift), neuchooishagh (casual, offhand), neuarreydagh (inattentive, speech, speech), unguarded, unguarded of person, unheeding). (various references)

Pig Latin		erfunctorypay

Portuguese		perfumaria (perfumery), passageiro (ephemeral, fade, fare, fleet, momentary, passenger, passing, rider, temporary, transient, transitional, transitory, wayfarer), superficial (above ground, aboveground, amateurish, flask, flimsy, flipper, frothy, lipothymy, shallow, sketchy, skin deep, superficial, trivial), negligente (careless, derelict, devil may care, heedless, idle, inadvisable, inattentive, incurious, inobservant, lazy, loose, mindless, neglectful, negligent, reckless, regardless, slack, unheeding, unmindful, unwary), descuidado (brainless, carefree, careless, casual, harelip, heedless, inadvertent, incautious, light minded, mindless, neglectful, negligent, reckless, regardless, remiss, scatterbrained, slapdash, sloppy, thoughtless, unheeding, unmindful, unthinking, untidy, unwary). (various references)

Romanian		superficial (cursory, external, facile, flimsy, flippant, gossamer, passing, shallow, skin deep, slight, sublime, superficial, superficially, thin, tinsel, trivial, yeasty), indiferent (all one, all the same, anywhere, apathetic, apathetical, careless, chill, cool, dull, impassive, indifferent, indifferently, inhuman, insensible, insensitive, lackadaisical, languid, listless, nonchalant, numb, phlegmatic, pococurante, reckless, remiss, slack, slow, sluggish, stolid, unconcerned, unimportant, unmoved), de mântuialã (patchily). (various references)

Russian		небрежный (careless, casual, devil-may-care, harum scarum, heedless, inadvertent, inexact, lax, loose, loose translation, neglectful, negligent, nonchalant, ragged, remiss, scratchy, slipshod, sloppy, unheeding, unkempt). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		površan (cursory, flighty, frothy, gossamery, light minded, shallow, skin deep, superficial, supervacaneous). (various references)

Spanish		superficial (cursory, facile, hurried, lip-deep, shallow, shallow-minded, skin deep, superficial, trivial), mecánico (chauffeur, driver, engineer, fitterman, grease monkey, machine, machinist, mechanic, mechanical, mechanistic, power driven, repairman, rigger, soulless), hecho a la ligera. (various references)

Swedish		likgiltig (apathetic, apathetical, half hearted, immaterial, inapprehensive, incurious, indifferent, insensible, insouciant, lackadaisical, languid, unconcerned, unsympathetic). (various references)

Turkish		yarım yamalak (after a fashion, half-way, incompletely, loose, sketchy, slipshod, slovenly), yapmış olmak için, formalite icabı (as a mere formality, for the sake of formality), baştan savma (evasive, patchily, patchy, run around, salvo, sketchy, slapdash, slipshod, slovenly), üstünkörü (casual, casually, cursory, glib, loose, scratchy, shallow, sketchy, skin deep, slight, superficial, trifling). (various references)

Ukranian		неглибокий, поверховий (cursory, facile, frivolous, lip-deep, overly, shallow, sketchy, skin deep, superficial). (various references)

Vietnamese		l� m hời hợt, l� m đại khái, hời hợt (airy, shallow, superficial), chiếu lệ, đại khái; l� m chiếu lệ. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Late Latin	300-700	perfunctorius. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Misspellings
	"Perfunctory" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: pefunctory, perfnctory, perfuctnory, perfuctory, perfuntory, prefunctory. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "perfunctory" (pronounced perfu"ngkterē)
4	-k t er ē	contradictory, directory, factory, introductory, olfactory, rectory, refractory, satisfactory, trajectory, unsatisfactory, valedictory, victory.
3	-t er ē	adultery, alimentary, artery, battery, blustery, buttery, complimentary, coterie, documentary, eatery, effrontery, flattery, glittery, history, jittery, lottery, mastery, mystery, notary, parliamentary, peremptory, pottery, premonitory, protohistory, rotary, rudimentary, sedimentary, splintery, supplementary, testamentary, upholstery, watery.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "c-e-f-n-o-p-r-r-t-u-y"
	-3 letters: confuter, trouncer.
	-4 letters: century, confute, cornute, corrupt, counter, country, courter, crofter, current, encrypt, entropy, forerun, fortune, fronter, frounce, functor, porrect, potency, pouncer, procure, putrefy, recount, rectory, refront, torrefy, tourney, trounce, trouper, turnery, upfront.
	-5 letters: confer, copter, corner, cornet, cotype, county, couter, crepon, croupe, croupy, crypto, curter, forcer, furore, ornery, outcry, penury, perron, poetry.
	Words containing the letters "c-e-f-n-o-p-r-r-t-u-y"
	+2 letters: perfunctorily.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.