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state of the art

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noun

the latest and most sophisticated or advanced stage of a technology, art, or science.

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RELATED WORDS

modernity, modernization

Nearby words

  1. state house,
  2. state medicine,
  3. state of aden,
  4. state of grace,
  5. state of matter,
  6. state of the union,
  7. state of the union address,
  8. state of the union message,
  9. state of war,
  10. state police

Origin of state of the art

First recorded in 1960–65
Related formsstate-of-the-art, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
British Dictionary definitions for state of the art

state of the art

noun

the level of knowledge and development achieved in a technique, science, etc, esp at present

adjective state-of-the-art (prenominal)

the most recent and therefore considered the best; up-to-the-minutea state-of-the-art amplifier
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Idioms and Phrases with state of the art

state of the art

The highest level of development, very up-to-date, as in This new television set reflects the state of the art in screen technology. Despite including the word art, this term originated in technology, and its first recorded use appears in a 1910 book on the gas turbine. Today it is often used adjectivally, as in This is a state-of-the-art camera, and sometimes very loosely, as in That movie is state-of-the-art Woody Allen.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.