- present tense form of top (3rd person singular).
tops
Americanadjective
adverb
noun
noun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of tops
First recorded in 1930–35; plural of top 1
Explanation
Are you the very best chess player in your state? Then you're the tops. Something or someone that's tops is outstanding or of the highest quality. You can use the informal tops to describe things or people that are unmatched or topmost, like your amazing high school, considered to be tops among all public schools in the country. It can also mean something closer to "awesome," as when you say, "Did you taste that new flavor of potato chip? It's tops!" Tops first appeared in 1935 as American slang.
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.
The residents of Drop City, a Colorado artists’ community, built domes from the curved steel tops of salvaged cars.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Bleaching events since 2018 have caused widespread coral mortality, with the United Nations' World Ocean Assessment warning that 90 percent of reefs could disappear if global warming tops 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026
Tree topping — where whole tops of trees or large branches are reduced to stubs — is also harmful for trees, according to Lancaster.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
That tops all 10 commercial property sectors and is more than double the increase in overall commercial real-estate prices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
And it was too little, too late: At around 9:00, the water in the reactor sank below the tops of the fuel rods.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
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.
