Word.ws English Dictionary

best

UK/bɛst/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/best/

best adjective: most; largest. Also the superlative form of good.

Adjective

best (comparative (nonstandard, humorous) bester, superlative (nonstandard, humorous) bestest)

  1. Most; largest.
    • Unpacking took the best part of a week.
  2. Most superior; most favorable.
    • In my opinion, mushrooms are the best pizza toppings.

Adverb

best

  1. To the most advantage; with the most success, cause, profit, benefit, or propriety.
    • You'd best save a backup copy, just in case the morons lose the one that you sent and then try to act like you never sent one.
    • Had I not best go to her?1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC

Noun

best (countable and uncountable, plural bests)

  1. (often, uncountable) The supreme effort one can make, or has made.
    • I did my best.
    • My personal best in that race is eighteen minutes, four seconds.
  2. (often, uncountable) One's best behavior.
    • I was somewhat distant lately, and my lady promised me head every Tuesday of the week when I’m nice to her, so I better be on my best.
  3. (countable, often) The person (or persons; or thing or things) that is (are) most excellent.
    • Even the best of us makes mistakes, but only a few with the best of intentions...
    • We're (the) best of friends, who fortunately enjoy the best of health.

Verb (1)

best (third-person singular simple present bests, present participle besting, simple past and past participle bested)

  1. (transitive) To surpass in skill or achievement.
  2. (transitive) To beat in a contest.
    • The Norddeutscher Lloyd steamship Kronprinz Wilhelm left New York on May 3 [1904], at 3.10 p.m. and reached Plymouth Sound on May 9 at 8 a.m. This was then a very fast crossing of the Atlantic, but it was not the record. The same ship had held the "Blue Riband" in 1902, but had been slightly bested...1944 July and August, Charles E. Lee, “The "City of Truro"”, in Railway Magazine, pages 201–202
    • "You did not win because I was sloppy. You bested me, Uncle. I've never seen you fight like that before.”2010, T. William Phillips, Restless Heart, page 16

Verb (2)

best

  1. (colloquial, modal) Had best.
    • It's getting late. You best get on home.
    • 'We best be going,' she said, looking at the clock.1935, Edward Joseph O'Brien, John Cournos, editors, The Best British Short Stories of 1935, page 37

Proper noun capitalized: Best

Best (countable and uncountable, plural Bests)

  1. A surname.
    • Dyshan Best, 39, was shot in the back last year as he fled from officers in Bridgeport, Connecticut. A report released this week by the state’s inspector general found that the shooting was justified because Best had a gun in his hand and the officer pursuing him had reasons to fear for his own...2026 March 12, “US officer having a ‘mild anxiety attack’ took ambulance meant for man shot by police”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 12 Mar 2026
  2. A village and municipality in North Brabant province, Netherlands.

Also used as

best is also the superlative form of good.

best is also the superlative form of well.

best meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Sanskrit and Tagalog

best in Hindi

superlative of the adjective good
श्रेष्ठ śreṣṭh

best in Tamil

superlative of the adjective good
சிறந்த ciṟanta, மிகச்சிறந்த mikacciṟanta

best in Sanskrit

superlative of the adjective good
श्रेष्ठ śreṣṭha, वसिष्ठ vasiṣṭha

best in Tagalog

superlative of the adverb well
pinakamahusay, pinakamagaling
More languagesFewer languages
best in Arabic
أَفْضَل ʔafḍal
best in Malay
terbaik
best in Persian
خوبترین xubtarin, بهترین behtarin
best in Thai
ดีที่สุด tiisiisut

Examples of best in a sentence

  • I love it so much! It's the best.
  • Home defender Per Mertesacker had to be at his best to stop a dangerous cross from Vassilis Torossidis reaching Djebbour, but moments later Arsenal doubled their lead through Santos.2011 September 28, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos”, in BBC Sport:
  • Mel Gussow reviews the bests of off off Broadway1994, Otis L. Guernsey, Jeffrey Sweet, The Best Plays of 1993-1994, page vii:
  • But in true Cincinnati style, the bests consistently outnumber the worsts.1995 October, Cincinnati Magazine, page 5:
  • There are the bests for each institution, the bests for coalitions, and, of course, the bests for the group as a whole.2011, G. Edward Evans, Sheila S. Intner, Jean Riddle Weihs, Introduction to Technical Services, page 149:

All 40 example sentences with best

Synonyms of best

21 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of best

Forms of best

Adjective
comparative (nonstandard, humorous)bester
superlative (nonstandard, humorous)bestest
Noun
pluralbests
Verb
third-person singular presentbests
present participlebesting
past participlebested
pastbested
Proper noun
pluralBests

Past tense of best: bested

Plural of best: bests

Origin of best

From Middle English best, beste, from Old English bezt, betest, from Proto-Germanic *batistaz. Cognates Cognate with Scots best (“best”), Cimbrian peste, péste (“best”), Dutch best (“best”), German beste (“best”), Yiddish בעסט (best, “best”), Danish bedst (“best”), Faroese bestur (“best”), Icelandic bestur, beztur (“best”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk best (“best”), Swedish bäst (“best”), Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐍄𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍃 (batists, “best”).

Shortening of had best

From German Beste (“a river in Germany”) or from Anglo-Norman beste (“beast”).

Words formed from best

Phrases with best

133 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with best

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about best

What does best mean?
Best means most; largest.
What is best in Hindi?
Best in Hindi is श्रेष्ठ (śreṣṭh). See Best meaning in Hindi.
How do you use best in a sentence?
I love it so much! It's the best.
What part of speech is best?
Best can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce best?
Best is pronounced /bɛst/ (UK).

Words near best in the dictionary

  1. Bessingers
  2. Bessler
  3. Besslers
  4. Besson
  5. Bessy
  6. best
  7. best and fairest
  8. best and fairests
  9. best as one can
  10. best ball
  11. best before

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: best (page history and authors); Best (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-best.ogg, en-au-best.ogg.

Cite this entry: “best.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/best. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.