A perfective tense used to express action completed in the past

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1520s, shortened from Latin (tempus praeteritum) plus (quam) perfectum "(past tense) more (than) perfect." Translates Greek khronos hypersyntelikos . See plus and perfect .

Wiktionary Word definitions in Wiktionary
a. 1 More than perfect 2 (context grammar English) Pertaining to action completed before or at the same time as another n. 1 The pluperfect tense 2 A verb in this tense

Wikipedia Word definitions in Wikipedia
The past perfect is a type of verb form, treated as one of the tenses of certain languages, used in referring to something that occurred earlier than the time being considered, when the time being considered is already in the past. The meaning of the pluperfect ...

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Word definitions in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
noun EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS ▪ And the past past. the pluperfect , can not have existed for him at all. ▪ Maude, on the other hand, had gone deep into the pluperfect , eleven generations of it.

WordNet Word definitions in WordNet
adj. more than perfect; "he spoke with pluperfect precision" n. a perfective tense used to express action completed in the past; "`I had finished' is an example of the past perfect" [syn: past perfect , past perfect tense , pluferfect tense ]

The Collaborative International Dictionary Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Preterpluperfect \Pre`ter*plu"per`fect\, a. & n. [Pref. preter- + pluperfect.] (Gram.) Old name of the tense also called pluperfect .