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View synonyms for second best

second best

noun

  1. the next to the best in performance, achievement, craftsmanship, etc.


second-best

adjective

  1. next to the best
  2. come off second best informal.
    to be defeated in competition


noun

  1. an inferior alternative

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Other Words From

  • second-best adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of second best1

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, second class . Next after the first in rank or quality, inferior to the best, as in We aren't satisfied with being second best in sales , or This hotel is obviously second class . The first term dates from the first half of the 1400s, the variant from about 1800. Also see come off , def. 2; second class .

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Example Sentences

Thus, abortion is another gender gap issue where men and the GOP come out second-best.

With Sanders, Indianapolis had the second-best run defense in the playoffs.

It was a second-best alternative to just counting some of the votes, one which he offered when it looked like he might be losing.

So he wanted to at least explore the second-best option for getting justice for his client, a civil settlement.

Nevertheless, it was the best year since 2006, and 2010 was the second-best year, with employers adding 940,000 jobs.

Poor Johann George came out of it in that way; not second-best, think several.

She was in sober, every-day serge now, and pulling on her second-best cloak.

If he came off second-best a dozen times, he went confidently into the thirteenth trial, brave as Bruce, and equally successful.

You've always come off second-best with Hermansen—and now he's snapped up Mrs. Rantzau under your nose.

That was his own plan; and, though second-best, that also would have done well, had there been no third.

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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.

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