suboptimal

«suboptimal» in Mova's school dictionary: not as good as it could be; in plain words, poor or bad — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (suboptimal; not usually compared)

meaning for a pupil

1) (euphemism, jargon) not as good as it could be; in plain words, poor or bad. tree →

2) (technical) not the best possible solution in maths or computing. tree →

sense in the lessons

Used in business, science and polite criticism to avoid saying "bad"; jargon, all regions. Often humorous understatement.

examples

• The results were suboptimal: we lost ten nil. tree →
• The weather for the picnic was suboptimal. tree →
• That route is suboptimal; the other way is shorter. tree →
• "Suboptimal" is a fancy way of saying it went wrong. tree →
• The computer found a suboptimal answer. tree →
• Forgetting your PE kit on match day is suboptimal. tree →

note

Often an understatement for "bad". In maths, "optimal" means best; suboptimal is anything worse than the best answer.

In the corpora

• "Suboptimal" (jargon) means bad or poor.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «suboptimal» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.