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suboptimal
[ suhb-op-tuh-muhl ]
Word History and Origins
Origin of suboptimal1
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.
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.
"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.
Populations of large animals have been pushed into fragmented and suboptimal habitat ranges due to over hunting and human land-use change.
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.
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Related Words
More About Suboptimal
What does suboptimal mean?
Suboptimal means below the optimal (best possible) level or standard.
The words optimal and optimum both describe an ideal or perfect level, degree, result, or similar thing. Suboptimal means something has fallen short of that level. It is often used in phrases like suboptimal performance and suboptimal conditions.
Example: The patient’s heart is performing at a suboptimal level.
Where does suboptimal come from?
The first record of suboptimal comes from the early 1900s (when it was often hyphenated as sub-optimal). It is made up of the prefix sub-, meaning “under” or “below,” and optimal, which comes from the Latin word optimus, meaning “best.”
Suboptimal is commonly used to indicate that a system or a part of it isn’t performing as it should, such as in software or the human body. Many different fields use suboptimal to describe something that doesn’t meet a certain standard. In medicine, the word is used to describe an organ that is not functioning properly or to comment on treatment, as in the phrase suboptimal care. In machinery and computing, suboptimal is often used to refer to low efficiency or speed. In sports, suboptimal performance or suboptimal play are used to refer to teams or individual players who aren’t performing at their usual or expected level.
In all of these senses, suboptimal is a somewhat technical term meant to indicate that an ideal standard is not being reached.
Did you know ... ?
What are some synonyms for suboptimal?
- suboptimum
- substandard
What are some words that share a root or word element with suboptimal?
What are some words that often get used in discussing suboptimal?
How is suboptimal used in real life?
Suboptimal is used as a way of commenting on the performance of someone or something, especially when discussing efficiency or skill. Sports commentators use it as a more serious-sounding way of saying that a performance was poor.
So, this is suboptimal https://t.co/1t4AqWsnYr
— Adam T. Hooker ⚔️⬆️ (@coachhooker) January 10, 2020
The Bills had a UNBELIEVABLE game script.
They killed themselves the rest of the game.
There were SO MANY suboptimal calls by BUF.
Not just suboptimal. TERRIBLE.
This is how you blow a playoff game to Bill O'Brien.
You have to make terrible choices… and the Bills obliged.
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) January 5, 2020
THIS PERFORMANCE IS SUBOPTIMAL
— Arsenal Gentleman 🧐 (@ArsenalGent) February 28, 2016
Try using suboptimal!
Which of the following terms is an antonym (opposite) of suboptimal?
A. imperfect
B. substandard
C. satisfactory
D. bad
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