Definition of IMMACULATE

Other words from immaculate

immaculately adverb

immaculateness noun

… the immaculateness of scrubbed decks … —William Sansom

Did You Know?

The opposite of immaculate is maculate, which means "marked with spots" or "impure." The Latin word maculatus, the past participle of a verb meaning "to stain," is the source of both words and can be traced back to macula, a word 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 has appeared occasionally (one might say "spottily"), especially as an antithesis to immaculate. We find the pair, for example, in an article by Peter Schjeldahl in an April 2004 issue of The New Yorker: "Rob's apartment, with its immaculate ranks of album spines and its all too maculate strewing of everything else…."

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

What better place for meandering conversations about life, family and our hopes and fears than this immaculate Viennese spa on a cold October day? — Molly Selvin, latimes.com, "In Vienna, time for creating new memories and revisiting the old," 8 July 2018 The front nine plays in a links-style format and features rolling hills, native grasses and immaculate greens. — Jeremy Carranco, San Antonio Express-News, "Greater San Antonio Men’s Championship tees off for 98th time," 12 July 2018 Last month, a fire tore through the Glasgow School of Art, demolishing the majority of the building’s interior, which had just undergone an immaculate restoration after an earlier fire in 2014. — Liz Stinson, Curbed, "Glasgow School of Art will be rebuilt after devastating fire," 12 July 2018 Julius, radioman second class like his brother, is being buried with full military honors at the cemetery, an immaculate field of crosses and stars of David. — Fox News, "Twin brothers to be reunited 74 years after dying together on D-Day," 19 June 2018 Nationals starter Max Scherzer delivered an immaculate inning on Tuesday night against the Rays. — Jenna West, SI.com, "Watch: Max Scherzer Pitches Second Immaculate Inning of His Career," 5 June 2018 The 15,846-square foot home included a spa, swimming pool, elevator, home theater and ocean views, the sort of immaculate space that might appeal to a multimillionaire with a wife, three children and a burgeoning business empire off the court. — Nathan Fenno, latimes.com, "LeBron James dropped hints for a year that he would join Lakers," 3 July 2018 The area around the street-level elevator was immaculate and smelled of new paint. — William Finnegan, The New Yorker, "Can Andy Byford Save the Subways?," 2 July 2018 An immaculate white convertible — the BMW of its day — and well out of the reach of a pack of teenage Orange toughs. — Longreads, "The Cold War and its Fallout," 16 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'immaculate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.