Word.ws English Dictionary

second best

second best adjective: inferior to the best (but better than other alternatives).

Adjective

second best (not comparable)

  1. Inferior to the best (but better than other alternatives).
    • I had to make do with a second-best alternative.
  2. Characterized by one or more optimality conditions not being satisfiable.

Noun

second best (plural second bests)

  1. Something (or someone) that is inferior to the best (but better than other alternatives).
    • And so makeshift and second-best have continued.1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 38
    • If I made you feel second best / Well I'm sorry I was blind1970, Johnny Christopher, Mark James, Wayne Carson, “Always On My Mind”, performed by Brenda Lee
  2. A situation where one or more optimality conditions cannot be satisfied.

second best meaning in Tamil

second best in Tamil

இரண்டாவது சிறப்புடை

Forms of second best

Adjective
alternative formsecond-best
Noun
pluralsecond bests

Questions about second best

What does second best mean?
Second best means inferior to the best (but better than other alternatives).
What is second best in Tamil?
Second best in Tamil is இரண்டாவது சிறப்புடை. See Second best meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is second best?
Second best can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near second best in the dictionary

  1. second bananas
  2. second base
  3. second baseman
  4. second basemen
  5. second bases
  6. second best
  7. second bests
  8. second brain
  9. second brains
  10. second breakfast
  11. second breakfasts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: second best (page history and authors); second best (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

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