perfunctorily
/pəɹˈfʌŋkt(ə)ɹɪli/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.40 in modern English
23
Scrabble Score
13
Letters
5
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
adv
In a perfunctory manner, without interest or concern for quality.
Example Sentences
- "And it was while all were passionately intent upon the pleasing and snake-like progress of their uncle that a young girl in furs, ascending the stairs two at a time, peeped perfunctorily into the nursery as she passed the hallway—and halted amazed."
- "She answered perfunctorily. She said that, of course, they had picked out the two gunmen, but had thought nothing of it when the man with the stick had gone to stand behind Bond's chair."
- "Lim Cheng Po said an Anglican prayer or two, not too perfunctorily."
- "Tibor was circling the table and asking each of us how our entrée was, and we all regarded this as just one of those perfunctory waiter-questions and all perfunctorily smiled and cleared our mouths and said Fine, Fine—and Tibor finally stopped and looked down at us all with a pained expression and changed his timbre slightly so it was clear he was addressing the whole table: “Please. I ask each: is excellent? […]”"
- "Luján, or, rather, the biped which used to be Luján, walks right up to him. He is a little shorter than Wheeler, but much heavier-set. Rooted to the spot, not thinking clearly, Wheeler holds his violin up, as if this will shield him. The conductor takes the instrument from his unresisting hands and breaks its neck underfoot, perfunctorily, as if crushing a box for recycling."
Etymology
Etymology tree English perfunctory Middle English -ly English -ly English perfunctorily From perfunctory + -ly.
Inflected Forms
more perfunctorily (comparative)
most perfunctorily (superlative)