best practice

American  

noun

Chiefly Business.

1. Often best practices a procedure or set of procedures that is preferred or considered standard within an organization, industry, etc..

   The company adopted best practice in employee recruitment.

   At the meeting we reviewed best practices for communicating with clients.

   Their methodology was identified as a best practice.

---

best practice British  

noun

1. the recognized methods of correctly running businesses or providing services

---

Etymology

Origin of best practice

First recorded in 1980–85; derived from an earlier (1905) sense “the best method, procedure, etc.”

Example Sentences

That’s not because the travel industry has a hard-and-fast rule about when to buy flights, but because the loosely understood best practice of a one-to-three-month advance window for nonholiday travel hasn’t arrived yet.

From Slate • May 12, 2026

As well as sharing profits, domestic firms benefited from their overseas partners' shared technology and best practice.

From Barron's • Apr. 27, 2026

The best practice is to add between 5% and 10% to your budget as a buffer to protect against price spikes and emergency expenses.

From MarketWatch • Dec. 24, 2025

During a practice, Cousins explains that Celine Dion provided the soundtrack of his youth, promising a coach that “If you play Celine Dion ‘I Drove All Night,’ I’ll have the best practice I’ve ever had.”

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 23, 2025

The best practice for transposing is to transpose a piece you know well into a new key.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones