suboptimal

[ suhb-op-tuh-muhl ]

adjective

1. being below an optimal level or standard.

Word History and Origins

Origin of suboptimal¹

First recorded in 1930–35; sub- + optimal

Example Sentences

They have kept four clean sheets so far this season but for a team with aspirations of competing for the top honours at home and in Europe, letting in two goals or more every other game is suboptimal to say the least.

From BBC

Some estimates suggest as much as 20 percent of produce ends up in landfills and incinerators because of cosmetic imperfections, with a degree of that due to consumer rejection of visually "suboptimal" foods.

From Salon

"As children with psychopathological symptoms and worse cognitive performance appear to have a suboptimal brain structural connectivity, defined by a poorer white matter microstructure, we hypothesized that cold and hot temperatures may have negative impacts on cerebral white matter microstructure," the authors write.

From Salon

Populations of large animals have been pushed into fragmented and suboptimal habitat ranges due to over hunting and human land-use change.

From Science Daily

Although the team acknowledges that BMI is a suboptimal metric, the independent and strong association between more aircraft noise exposure and higher BMI that they observed is notable.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• substandard