Impeccable

How to spell impeccable

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce impeccable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does impeccable mean?

1. adjectiveIn accordance with the highest standards; faultless and free from any flaw.

Impeccable in a sentence

• The waiter's impeccable service earned a generous tip.

• Her impeccable grammar made the report a pleasure to edit.

Where does impeccable come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin impeccabilis, which combined the negative prefix in- meaning 'not' with the verb peccare, meaning 'to sin' or 'to do wrong'. In its earliest theological sense it described someone who was literally incapable of sinning, a quality reserved for the divine or the saintly. English took it up in the sixteenth century, at first carrying that moral, sin-free meaning. Over time the sense broadened from spiritual blamelessness to any kind of flawlessness, so today we praise impeccable manners, taste, or timing. The same Latin root peccare survives in the rarer English word 'peccadillo', a small sin or trivial fault, and remembering that the heart of the word is 'sin' helps fix the doubled c in the spelling.

How the word is built

• im- (not)
• pecc- (to sin, from Latin peccare)
• -able (capable of being)