as in dreamer
a person who wants things to be done perfectly or who tries to do things perfectly
I'm a bit of a perfectionist, which makes it difficult for me to finish things sometimes.
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Recent Examples of perfectionist
To be a perfectionist is normally to be a pain.
—
Kevin Power, The New York Review of Books, 2 Feb. 2026
Smith-Njigba is a perfectionist, though.
—Michael-Shawn Dugar, New York Times, 10 Jan. 2026
While Davis was known as being a perfectionist to a fault, which sometimes led to clashes with cohorts on her many movie sets, this wasn't the case between the two actresses while filming 1961's Pocketful of Miracles.
—Angela Andaloro, PEOPLE, 9 Jan. 2026
Kubrick was a notorious perfectionist who spent years on each of his films and demanded dozens, sometimes hundreds, of takes per scene.
—Lane Brown, Vulture, 17 Dec. 2025
Both Virgos and Taureans are known to be headstrong perfectionists, so don’t be too harsh on yourself during these fun few weeks.
—Snehaa Khanna Sahgal, Vogue, 26 Nov. 2025
There’s her character Maia, an overachieving perfectionist who is white knuckling her way through her career despite few connections and a boss who is not all that concerned with her upward mobility.
—Katie Campione, Deadline, 2 Nov. 2025
That’s a meaningful admission coming from a guy who often seems like a musical perfectionist.
—Jon Dolan, Rolling Stone, 17 Oct. 2025
The perfectionist and the goof.
—Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 14 Oct. 2025
Kevin Power, The New York Review of Books, 2 Feb. 2026
Smith-Njigba is a perfectionist, though.
—Michael-Shawn Dugar, New York Times, 10 Jan. 2026
While Davis was known as being a perfectionist to a fault, which sometimes led to clashes with cohorts on her many movie sets, this wasn't the case between the two actresses while filming 1961's Pocketful of Miracles.
—Angela Andaloro, PEOPLE, 9 Jan. 2026
Kubrick was a notorious perfectionist who spent years on each of his films and demanded dozens, sometimes hundreds, of takes per scene.
—Lane Brown, Vulture, 17 Dec. 2025
Both Virgos and Taureans are known to be headstrong perfectionists, so don’t be too harsh on yourself during these fun few weeks.
—Snehaa Khanna Sahgal, Vogue, 26 Nov. 2025
There’s her character Maia, an overachieving perfectionist who is white knuckling her way through her career despite few connections and a boss who is not all that concerned with her upward mobility.
—Katie Campione, Deadline, 2 Nov. 2025
That’s a meaningful admission coming from a guy who often seems like a musical perfectionist.
—Jon Dolan, Rolling Stone, 17 Oct. 2025
The perfectionist and the goof.
—Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 14 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for perfectionist
dreamer
Noun
-
But today there’s something refreshingly unusual about electronic music so unabashedly idealistic, something that declines to submit to reality and instead goes searching for some far-off nirvana, finding connections to other dreamers on the way.—
Alex Robert Ross,
Pitchfork,
13 Feb. 2026
-
Their journeys to the Olympics are more than anything immigrant stories, the odysseys of two families of dreamers who settled in the South Bay, Chloe Kim’s family in Torrance, Bea Kim’s on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.—
Scott M. Reid,
Oc Register,
11 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Perfectionist.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/perfectionist. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
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