What's the difference between best and superlative?

Best


Definition:

  • (a.) Having good qualities in the highest degree; most good, kind, desirable, suitable, etc.; most excellent; as, the best man; the best road; the best cloth; the best abilities.
  • (a.) Most advanced; most correct or complete; as, the best scholar; the best view of a subject.
  • (a.) Most; largest; as, the best part of a week.
  • (n.) Utmost; highest endeavor or state; most nearly perfect thing, or being, or action; as, to do one's best; to the best of our ability.
  • (superl.) In the highest degree; beyond all others.
  • (superl.) To the most advantage; with the most success, case, profit, benefit, or propriety.
  • (superl.) Most intimately; most thoroughly or correctly; as, what is expedient is best known to himself.
  • (v. t.) To get the better of.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Because of the small number of patients reported in the world literature and lack of controlled studies, the treatment of small cell carcinoma of the larynx remains controversial; this retrospective analysis suggests that combination chemotherapy plus radiation offers the best chance for cure.
  • (2) 8.47pm: Cameron says he believes Britain's best days lie ahead and that he believes in public service.
  • (3) They are best explained by interactions between central sympathetic activity, brainstem control of respiration and vasomotor activity, reflexes arising from around and within the respiratory tract, and the matching of ventilation to perfusion in the lungs.
  • (4) Probability distributions are fitted to these data and it is shown that the log-series distribution best fits the data for two subgroups.
  • (5) Gross deformity, point tenderness and decrease in supination and pronation movements of the forearm were the best predictors of bony injury.
  • (6) He best be careful out there, because one of these days, POW, RIGHT IN THE KISSER!
  • (7) Their receptive fields comprise a temporally and spatially linear mechanism (center plus antagonistic surround) that responds to relatively low spatial frequency stimuli, and a temporally nonlinear mechanism, coextensive with the linear mechanism, that--though broad in extent--responds best to high spatial-frequency stimuli.
  • (8) Considerate touches includes the free use of cruiser bicycles (the best method of tackling the Palm Springs main drag), home-baked cookies … and if you'd like to get married, ask the manager: he's a minister.
  • (9) They insist this is the best way of ensuring the country does not descend into chaos before the final withdrawal of combat troops.
  • (10) This method seems the best way to evaluate the respective interactions of intonation with syntax and pragmatics.
  • (11) The shock resulting from acute canine babesiosis is best viewed as anemic shock.
  • (12) Early detection of breast cancer is the major indication, and mammography is the single best test for this task.
  • (13) Of all materials evaluated, Xantopren Blue and Silene silicone impression materials provided the best results in vivo.
  • (14) In reconstruction of the orbital floor, homograft lyophilised dura or cialit-stord rib cartilage are suitable, but the best materials are autologous cartilage or silastic or teflon.
  • (15) Hollywood legend has it that, at the first Academy awards in 1929, Rin Tin Tin the dog won most votes for best actor.
  • (16) Internal fixation of these pathological fractures appeared to be the best treatment.
  • (17) Spotlight is still the favourite to win best picture A dinner in Beverly Hills was hosted in Spotlight’s honor on Sunday night.
  • (18) In assessing damaged nets and curtains it must be recognised that anything less than the best vector control may have no appreciable impact on holoendemic malaria.
  • (19) In open fractures especially in those with severe soft tissue damage, fracture stabilisation is best achieved by using external fixators.
  • (20) The effect upon ethanol responding was found not to resemble a pattern of extinction, but rather was best described as a general overall reduction in responding.

Superlative


Definition:

  • (a.) Lifted up to the highest degree; most eminent; surpassing all other; supreme; as, superlative wisdom or prudence; a woman of superlative beauty; the superlative glory of the divine character.
  • (a.) Expressing the highest or lowest degree of the quality, manner, etc., denoted by an adjective or an adverb. The superlative degree is formed from the positive by the use of -est, most, or least; as, highest, most pleasant, least bright.
  • (n.) That which is highest or most eminent; the utmost degree.
  • (n.) The superlative degree of adjectives and adverbs; also, a form or word by which the superlative degree is expressed; as, strongest, wisest, most stormy, least windy, are all superlatives.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The world is in awe of China’s relentless capacity to produce gargantuan cities, each outdoing the most recent superlative that describes its predecessor.
  • (2) This is the temple complex of the Ness of Brodgar, and its size, complexity and sophistication have left archaeologists desperately struggling to find superlatives to describe the wonders they found there.
  • (3) That's a superlative goal from the 31-year-old debutant, who is now assured of a place in history even if he never wins another cap again in his life.
  • (4) He maintained both that this once-unavoidable change was no longer needed at all, owing to his superlative handling of the wider public finances, and – at the same time – that the cut was eventually happening anyway, as universal credit replaces tax credits.
  • (5) But according to the few Trump supporters willing to speak on the record – all of whom speak in superlatives of their adopted country and its people – Mexicans simply misunderstand the real-estate mogul.
  • (6) Increasingly, the paranoid defensiveness of the zealots cannot be reconciled with the righteous anger of those who believe every superlative performance must be suspect.
  • (7) The superlative regenerative capacity of rodent axons may limit the applicability of this model to human nerve tissue.
  • (8) We turn, as ever, to the superlative Complete Review, where MA Orthofer's reading of the Nobel betting patterns is legendary.
  • (9) "We're a bit suspicious of people who use too many superlatives," added guitarist Mark Webber.
  • (10) First Ramsey, enjoying his most prolific season under Wenger, restored his side's lead courtesy of a superlative volley after connecting with Carl Jenkinson's cross.
  • (11) application of comparative and superlative forms of an adjective to nonwords.
  • (12) I was right on deadline and in a panic not only to find fresh superlatives for the most electric hour of sport I had ever witnessed, but to string together any kind of coherent sentence at all.
  • (13) Moses has needed more than the occasional superlative of late.
  • (14) Steaua Bucharest 0-5 Manchester City: Champions League play-off – as it happened Read more Before the superlatives start to flow, perhaps it should be taken into account that Steaua Bucharest were generous opponents for a team with a new manager to impress.
  • (15) It's not quite believable that height is unimportant to Sellar, although he's right that it's fatuous to chase superlatives, given that the Shard does not quite equal the 82-year-old Chrysler building in New York.
  • (16) Here he is on the Nasty Party in 1835, in a letter to Catherine Hogarth (soon to take the name Dickens, as his wife): "... a ruthless set of bloody-minded villains... perfect savage... superlative blackguards..." Two days later he ended another letter: "P.S.
  • (17) I don't think there's a superlative left to describe Suárez.
  • (18) "Of course," he says; he knew "from the very beginning" that his was a "superlative" talent.
  • (19) What happened next was so extraordinary it is difficult to know if there are enough superlatives in existence to do it justice.
  • (20) In a superlative run of clichés – "gone with the wind", "one with Nineveh", "in a word" – Wodehouse revels in, and revives, the contained sphere of an exhausted language (a "small world" of its own) and makes it a little larger.