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Which of these could be described as perfunctory?

perfunctory

[per-fuhngk-tuh-ree] / pərˈfʌŋk tə ri /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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“This constellation of foreign investment from China and from Gulf States, with complex and sometimes competing relationships with the United States, demands rigorous, not perfunctory review,” Booker and the others wrote.

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 24, 2026

As I visited congressional offices this week, meeting with sources and watching members of Congress interact with their constituents, it felt perfunctory — and, in some cases, sad.

From Salon Feb. 13, 2026

Right there, you have the perfect shadow-docket sandwich: perfunctory, bad decisionmaking, conclusory predictions about what constitutes an “emergency” and who’s going to win, decided in a couple of days, wiping out extensive factual findings.

From Slate Jan. 3, 2026

It is preceded by musings that perhaps a king shouldn’t have the absolute powers he does—which felt like a perfunctory contemporary allusion.

From The Wall Street Journal Dec. 17, 2025

But it came out sounding broad, perfunctory, like the token consolation of a kind stranger.

From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini




Vocabulary lists containing perfunctory


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