top-tier

American  

[top-teer] / ˈtɒpˈtɪər /

adjective

1. of or among the highest rank, level, importance, or quality.

   It was again named the top-tier exterior house paint.

   She was sought after by three top-tier college basketball teams.

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Etymology

Origin of top-tier

First recorded in 1940–45; top ¹ ( def. ) + tier ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

A first taste of top-tier European competition since 1982-83 came last season when they reached the Champions League quarter-finals against Emery's former side Paris St-Germain.

From BBC • Apr. 16, 2026

"The ongoing wait for DeepSeek V4 points to friction in scaling advanced models without unrestricted access to top-tier Nvidia hardware," Wu said.

From Barron's • Apr. 9, 2026

And in recent months several companies have begun bragging about how well they are doing with this top-tier economic class.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 3, 2026

Kimi K2.5 ranks among the top-tier models on AI benchmark Artificial Analysis, though it still trails leading Western frontier models such as Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 Max.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026

I wanted the best of both worlds—the thrill and the drama of high school with all my friends and a top-tier gymnastics career.

From "Courage to Soar" by Simone Biles