immaculate

adjective im·mac·u·late \ i-ˈma-kyə-lət \

Updated on: 18 May 2018

Definition of immaculate

1 : having no stain or blemish : pure

an immaculate heart

2 : having or containing no flaw or error

an immaculate record of service

in immaculate detail

3 a : spotlessly clean

an immaculate kitchen

immaculate uniforms

b : having no colored spots or marks —used especially in botany and zoology

petals immaculate

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immaculately

adverb

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immaculateness

noun

- … the immaculateness of scrubbed decks …
- —William Sansom

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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 of immaculate from the Web

In other words: There’s absolutely no room for immaculate silk dresses to change into after a workout, nor is there a place for dainty purses that can’t fit an outfit change, a makeup bag, a packed lunch, a laptop, and a book.

— ally-jane grossan, Glamour, "What a $3.99 Closet Organization App Taught Me About Money, Style, and Fulfillment," 8 May 2018
Its immaculate white flesh, firm textured and clean tasting, lends itself to a wide variety of flavor profiles.

— Anchorage Daily News, "Searching for Anchorage’s finest bites? Think seafood," 2 May 2018
Kevin Gausman's seventh inning was immaculate — nine pitches, nine strikes and three strikeouts.

— jon meoli, baltimoresun.com, "Despite quality start and immaculate inning, Orioles' Kevin Gausman loses to Indians, 2-1," 24 Apr. 2018
Allied to this is Tati’s choreography for each scene, where immaculate timing triggers our chuckles.

— peter cowie, WSJ, "Hilariously Stuck Between Modernity and the Past," 27 Apr. 2018
Of course the biggest moment, and the one everyone was waiting for was when an immaculate Duchess of Cambridge came out with Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and presented their new son to the world.

— caroline hallemann, Town & Country, "Royal Photographer Chris Jackson Shares What It Was Really Like to Photograph the New Royal Baby," 26 Apr. 2018
Perhaps the hottest home in the whole country to hit the real estate market this week, an immaculate Victorian mansion in Woodland boasts six bedrooms, 11,200 square feet and a gorgeous exterior, with a list price of $3.85 million.

— michael mcgough, sacbee, "A Woodland mansion is listed for $3.9 million. Why SF residents may call it a bargain | The Sacramento Bee," 21 Apr. 2018
Ariana Grande has given us countless sources of beauty inspo — that sky-high ponytail, those immaculate cat eyes — but her latest look might be our favorite yet.

— marissa miller, Teen Vogue, "Ariana Grande Wears Purple Makeup and Platinum Bun," 18 Apr. 2018
The band's perfectly interlocking harmonies came along when Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and, yes, BBD were delivering immaculate singing to the pop charts.

— steve knopper, chicagotribune.com, "Boyz II Men not saying goodbye at all to yesterday," 15 Mar. 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.

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…."