Best

How to spell best

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce best

What does best mean?

1. adjectiveOf the highest quality, standard, or desirability; surpassing all others.
2. adverbIn the most excellent or effective manner; to the greatest degree.
3. nounThe most excellent or outstanding person, thing, or effort.

Best in a sentence

• adjective

  She earned the best score in the entire department.

• adverb

  He works best when the office is quiet.

• noun

  The team gave their best during the final round.

• adjective

  The restaurant serves the best coffee in town.

• adverb

  The plan that suits us best is also the cheapest.

• noun

  This model is the best in its price range.

Where does best come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word 'best' comes from Old English 'betst' (also 'betest'), the superlative form belonging to the same family as 'better'. It traces back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning roughly 'advantage' or 'improvement', glossed in plain English as 'the most improved' or 'the most advantageous'. Curiously, 'best' and 'better' have no obvious link to 'good' at all: English long ago borrowed these comparative and superlative forms from a different root, a pattern called suppletion that also gives us 'is/was' and 'go/went'. Over the centuries the cluster simplified from 'betst' to the modern 'best', losing the awkward middle consonants while keeping the single, tidy spelling we use today. Because the word is so short and ancient, it has stayed remarkably stable in form across all varieties of English.

How the word is built

• best (superlative of 'good', from Old English betst; root bat- 'advantage, improvement'
• superlative suffix)