(pl. Deuteromycetes)
Terms discussed: anamorph (pl. anamorphs), Fungi Imperfecti, Fungi Perfecti, Hyphomycete (pl. Hyphomycetes), imperfect (pl. imperfects), perfect, teleomorph (pl. teleomorphs)
The Deuteromycetes are those fungi that do not have sexually produced spores as part of their life cycle. Hyphomycete is sometimes used as more or less a synonym, but should properly have a more specific meaning, which depends on the taxonomical system one is using. Given our mammalian, diploid prejudices, these fungi are sometimes called the imperfect fungi, or Fungi Imperfecti, while the fungi that reproduce by means of sexual spores are called perfect fungi, or Fungi Perfecti.
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Many sexually-reproducing fungi have an asexual component to their life cycle, and for a long time mycologists believed that they would eventually find the sexually reproducing forms for all the imperfects. But this hope has pretty much fallen by the wayside - - there are about three times as many known imperfect fungi as there are known perfect fungi, and it's now generally accepted that most imperfects have given up sexuality altogether.
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In the case of a fungus that has a life stage where it produces sexual spores, and another stage where it reproduces by other means, the stage that produces sexual spores is called the teleomorph (or perfect stage), and the other life stage is called the anamorph (or imperfect stage).
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