Word.ws English Dictionary

suboptimal

Syllables: sub·op·ti·malUK/sʌbˈɒptɪməl/US/sʌbˈɑptɪməl/

suboptimal adjective: worse than optimal; of less than the highest standard or quality.

Adjective

suboptimal (not comparable)

  1. Worse than optimal; of less than the highest standard or quality.
    • Near-synonym: submaximal
    • A quickly produced suboptimal solution to a problem is often more useful than an optimal one that takes a long time to produce.

suboptimal meaning in Malay and Indonesian

suboptimal in Malay

less than optimal
suboptimum

suboptimal in Indonesian

less than optimal
suboptimal

Synonyms of suboptimal

Forms of suboptimal

alternative formsub-optimal

Origin of suboptimal

From sub- + optimal.

Words formed from suboptimal

Questions about suboptimal

What does suboptimal mean?
Suboptimal means worse than optimal; of less than the highest standard or quality.
What is suboptimal in Malay?
Suboptimal in Malay is suboptimum. See Suboptimal meaning in Malay.
What part of speech is suboptimal?
Suboptimal is an adjective.
How do you pronounce suboptimal?
Suboptimal is pronounced /sʌbˈɑptɪməl/ (US).

Words near suboptimal in the dictionary

  1. suboperons
  2. subopposite
  3. suboptic
  4. suboptical
  5. suboptima
  6. suboptimal
  7. suboptimalities
  8. suboptimality
  9. suboptimally
  10. suboptimisation
  11. suboptimisations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: suboptimal (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: “suboptimal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/suboptimal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.