pluperfect

English

Alternative forms

• (grammar): plpf. (abbreviation)

Etymology

Shortening of plusquamperfect, from Latin plusquamperfectum (“more than perfect”), from plus (“more”) + quam (“than”) + perfectum, neuter singular of perfectus (“achieved; finished; perfected”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pluːˈpɜː.fɪkt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /pluˈpɝ.fɪkt/

Adjective

pluperfect (not comparable)

1. More than perfect, utterly perfect, ideal.
2. (grammar) Pertaining to action completed before another action or event in the past, past perfect.
3. (mathematics) Relating to a certain type of graph, complying with the theorem (pluperfect graph theorem) discovered by D. R. Fulkerson in 1970.
4. (mathematics) Synonym of multiperfect
5. (informal) Used as an intensifier in various interjections.

   What in the pluperfect hell is going on here?!

   • 1952, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Wildlife in North Carolina - Volumes 16-19‎^[1]:

     The drought has raised pluperfect heck with fishing more ways than one.

Usage notes

• In many languages, this tense is formed using a participle and an auxiliary verb in a past tense.

Related terms

• pluperfection

Noun

pluperfect (plural pluperfects)

1. The pluperfect tense, the past perfect.
2. A verb in this tense.

Synonyms

• plusquamperfect, preterpluperfect

Translations

pluperfect tense — see pluperfect tense

verb in this tense

• Finnish: pluskvamperfekti (fi)
• French: plus-que-parfait (fr) m
• German: Plusquamperfekt (de) n
• Greek: υπερσυντέλικος (el) m (ypersyntélikos)

  Ancient: ὑπερσυντέλικος m (hupersuntélikos)

• Ido: plusquamperfekto (io)
• Italian: piuccheperfetto (it) m
• Korean: 과거완료 (ko) (gwageowallyo)
• Manx: yl-lanejeant
• Portuguese: pretérito mais-que-perfeito (pt) m
• Russian: плюсквамперфект (ru) (pljuskvamperfekt)
• Spanish: pluscuamperfecto (es)
• Swedish: pluskvamperfekt (sv)