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better than

Idioms  
  1. Superior to, as in He's no better than Tom at writing a memo . [9th century]

  2. More than, larger in amount or greater in rate, as in My new car can do better than 100 miles an hour , or The new plan will cut better than 15 percent of costs . Some authorities consider this usage colloquial and advise that it be avoided in formal writing. [Late 1500s] Also see better half , def. 1.


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Paying $1 million in taxes now is much better than paying $1 million in 2019.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 31, 2026

Mohammad Ali - 6 - Also better than he was at Headingley, nipping the ball in and out, but he won't find conditions better suited to his style.

From BBC Aug. 30, 2026

"It's undoubtedly better than before. Before, this oil wasn't being extracted; if no one extracts it, no one pays royalties, and no one profits from it," he said.

From Barron's Aug. 30, 2026

I can think of several ways to end this column, but at the risk of repeating myself, I don’t think I can do better than to lean on this reminder:

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 29, 2026

I knew it would be, hands down, better than anything Jonah would give him.

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

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