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The word best means:

Best: of the most excellent, effective, or desirable type or quality

It seems that we only use best for the top highest quality of a certain thing.

For example, there are four schools. The school has 10,000 students, is very popular, and its quality is also very good. The second and third have ok service. The fourth school has only 500 students but its quality is the top and higher than the first school’s.

Does anyone call the most popular school the best school? Or is the best school the one that has the top quality?

Which can we say it the best school, the first or the fourth?

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    You seem to have answered your own question here by saying one school is "very good" but the other is "the top". In what way is the second not the best? Of course, since best is a superlative and we are only comparing two, perhaps this is a trick question and neither is best: one is better.
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented Jun 15, 2015 at 4:59
  • the comparision is for all schools that we are referring to
    – Tom
    Commented Jun 15, 2015 at 5:14
  • Why would a school be the "best" simply because it is the largest?
    – Catija
    Commented Jun 15, 2015 at 6:14
  • Best can be based on subjective or objective criteria. One is an opinion. The other is a fact.
    – Alex W
    Commented Sep 1, 2015 at 14:46

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"Best" is almost always qualified by certain criteria. If you were to choose a school based on score alone, then the fourth school is clearly the "best," even though it's not as popular. However, many other factors determine which is the "best" for an individual. In the case of schools, this includes things like location, cost, topics covered, hours per week required, crime in the nearby area, and more. There is rarely a situation where the "best" of anything is determined by one metric.

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This is one of those words that has been ruined by advertising, good, better, best, super, gargantuan, superlative , etc. Best means there is no other as good. As the other poster said, The actual meaning is relative. My school, FSU, might not have the "best" college of medicine, but it is often rated the "best" party school.

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The word "best" is a modifier, either as an adjective or adverb. "Best school" is adjectival; "best fed" adverbial. But it requires a word to modify, even if it is "that" or "this." ("That is the best.") "Best" standing alone as a popular sign-off makes me cringe. I use "Best wishes."

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