optimal
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of optimal
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How does optimal compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Something that's optimal is the best or most favorable for a given situation. Flowers? Check. Chocolates? Check. Dinner reservation? Check. Sounds like you have the optimal conditions for a successful anniversary date. There's an implication with optimal that certain restrictions exist in a given situation, so that what is optimal isn't necessarily the ideal scenario — it's the best one given those limitations. For example, optimal population levels for a species are not the highest levels — instead they're the best levels that a particular environment can sustain. Often the word optimum is used interchangeably with optimal.
Vocabulary lists containing optimal
What If It's Us
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The Martian
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Apple
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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.
A member of the diving team that recovered the bodies of Italian scuba divers in the Maldives has said the equipment they were found with "was not optimal".
From BBC • May 22, 2026
On a call with analysts the same week, Susan Li, Meta’s finance chief, said she wasn’t sure what the optimal size of the company would be in the future, citing “AI capabilities advancing rapidly.”
From The Wall Street Journal • May 20, 2026
Then she advises readers that the purpose of exercise is to achieve an optimal “waist-to-hip” ratio supposedly preferred by men.
From Salon • May 8, 2026
Strip that away “and what emerges is a picture of a company that has found an optimal vehicle to fuel its Bitcoin acquisition effort,” Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer wrote in an email to clients Wednesday.
From Barron's • May 5, 2026
He clearly played basketball in that same optimal range of arousal in which Ron Avery performed.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
