IMPERFECTLY Synonyms: 47 Similar and Opposite Words

imperfectly

adverb

as in improperly

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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.

Recent Examples of imperfectly But the legal system’s binary standard—sane and guilty, or insane and not—fits imperfectly with human intuitions about culpability in tragedies like the Clancys’. — Eren Orbey, New Yorker, 30 July 2026 What kept her was the counselor who showed up imperfectly but consistently, who was unfinished and stayed anyway. — Laide Alexander, Forbes.com, 29 July 2026 Let a few tendrils fall to frame your face for an imperfectly perfect look like Salma Hayek's style. — Emily Kelleher, InStyle, 24 June 2026 It’s especially imperfectly timed for millennials entering their peak household spending years and beginning to form their own families (or at least try to). — Sydney Lake, Fortune, 17 June 2026 The sport that does more to restrain imbalance, however imperfectly, keeps tightening its grip on the national imagination. — Eddie Brown, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 May 2026 But the trajectory seems to be that science is learning, cautiously and imperfectly, to author life. — André O. Hudson, The Conversation, 30 Apr. 2026 The marathon showed that robots can run—imperfectly, but convincingly enough. — Ni Tao, Interesting Engineering, 20 Apr. 2026 They can be done imperfectly without being done disastrously. — Leslie John, Time, 27 Feb. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for imperfectly

Adverb

The judge is accused of improperly threatening to jail the DA and two other county prosecutors.

— AJ Willingham, AJC.com, 30 July 2026
The filing also claims that her case was improperly transferred from juvenile court to adult court, alleging that her trial and conviction ultimately violated her constitutional rights.

— Chris Spargo, PEOPLE, 29 July 2026

Definition of improperly

Adverb

Without the federal government as a consistent partner, local efforts are inadequately supported.

— Monitor Reader, Christian Science Monitor, 28 July 2026
Indian troops were deployed to thwart Chinese advances but were reportedly inadequately supplied, underprepared, and overwhelmed.

— Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 July 2026

Definition of inadequately

Adverb

Reuters — The US Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday that seats on hundreds of Boeing 737 MAX jets registered in the US were incorrectly installed and need to be fixed.

— CNN Money, CNN Money, 28 July 2026
Senior engineering judgment—the ability to spot a bad architecture, understand why a system will fail under load, know when a business rule has been encoded incorrectly—has always been built through years of junior-level struggle.

— Vaibhav Gujral, Forbes.com, 28 July 2026

Definition of incorrectly

Adverb

Palo Alto police confirmed the 49ers coach was at fault and said a clerical error led a state database to wrongly blame the other driver, a 21-year-old woman.

— Cam Inman, Mercury News, 28 July 2026
But that view wrongly supposes that Abundance was meant to be its own electoral lane.

— Ryder Kessler, New York Daily News, 26 July 2026

Definition of wrongly

Adverb

Jennifer Ruffcorn, spokesperson for Texas Health and Human Services, confirmed that Livingston was erroneously enrolled in Healthy Texas Women.

— Rachana Pradhan, NPR, 20 July 2026
Knappman — the man who reached out to Baldwin last year to fine Anna’s grave — said his grandmother, Maude, erroneously told him that her parents died in a fire in Baltimore.

— John Moritz, Hartford Courant, 20 July 2026

Definition of erroneously

Adverb

The attempt by former HFPA members to leverage the Golden Globe Foundation, an independent nonprofit, simply to secure Golden Globes tickets is an unfortunate distraction that inappropriately diverts resources from legitimate charitable causes.

— Ted Johnson, Deadline, 28 July 2026
The mother wrote in the complaint that Duffey had convinced her daughter to come to his hotel room on a trip and touched her inappropriately, sent her inappropriate messages and paid her to stay quiet about it.

— Rachel Hale, USA Today, 28 July 2026

Definition of inappropriately

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imperfections

imperfectly

imperfectness

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“Imperfectly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/imperfectly. Accessed 3 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of imperfectly

adverb

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