immaculate

adjective

im·mac·u·late i-ˈma-kyə-lət

Synonyms of immaculate next

: spotlessly clean

an immaculate kitchen

immaculate uniforms

: having or containing no flaw or error

an immaculate record of service

in immaculate detail

: having no stain or blemish : pure

an immaculate heart

: having no colored spots or marks

—used especially in botany and zoology

petals immaculate

immaculately adverb

immaculateness noun

… the immaculateness of scrubbed decks … —

William Sansom

Did you know?

You may already use the word immaculate flawlessly, but most of us have a spottier history with its antonymous counterpart, maculate, which means "marked with spots" or "impure." Both words can be traced back to macula, a Latin noun (plural maculae or maculas) that scientists still use for spots on the skin, on the wings of insects, and on the surface of celestial objects. Maculate has not marked as many pages as immaculate, but it appears occasionally, especially as an antithesis to immaculate. The pair is used, for example, by Clive James in a 2019 column in Prospect Magazine, in reference to Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey: “… the story sweeps along in immaculate iambic pentameter. In only one small aspect is the immaculateness maculate.”

Examples of immaculate in a Sentence

… they seemed as remote from metaphysics as their lunch bags and knapsacks. Yet weren't they all heading for those immaculate country snowfields to talk of God? —

Cynthia Ozick, Atlantic, May 1997

… and added to this was the fact that this Soviet Army Colonel had a service record that was as immaculate as a field of freshly fallen snow … —

Tom Clancy, The Cardinal of the Kremlin, (1988) 1989

I was expecting some giant to emerge, but in came a tiny, immaculate, white-haired man. —

Anna Russell, I'm Not Making This Up, You Know, 1985

She had an immaculate record of service. somehow managed to keep the white carpet immaculate

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

For most of the restaurant’s existence, Herrera sat on a chair at the counter, with immaculate red nails, taking orders and writing the names of customers on paper bags. —

Erica Zora Wrightson, Los Angeles Times, 5 Jan. 2025 There's nothing immaculate about the macabre scares, however. —

Griff Griffin, Newsweek, 30 Dec. 2024 Tour was somehow even better, and every show was professionally recorded: three hours of music drawn from an immaculate solo catalog and a few sublime covers, delivered by a band capable of reinventing the setlist every night. —

Rolling Stone, 28 Dec. 2024 This year, the 23-year-old mom-of-three quickly emerged as a pop culture force with her viral cooking videos on TikTok, immaculate fashion sense and ASMR-style narration. —

Athena Sobhan, People.com, 27 Dec. 2024 See all Example Sentences for immaculate