Meaning & use
high-performing
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Working or achieving at a level clearly above what is usual or expected.
Grammar: Usually comes before the noun it describes: a high-performing school. It can also follow a linking verb, as in the unit is high performing.
Patterns
- a high-performing team
- a high-performing school
- high-performing employees
- the most high-performing group
She was promoted after three years on a high-performing sales team.
The district opened a new school and it quickly became one of the highest-performing in the state.
Managers are trained to spot high-performing staff early and give them harder work.
adjectivebefore a nountechnical
Operating very efficiently and producing strong results, used of machines, systems, or organizations.
Grammar: Used before a noun, often for equipment or companies rather than people: a high-performing engine.
Patterns
- a high-performing system
- high-performing equipment
- a high-performing economy
The factory replaced its old motors with high-performing ones that use less power.
Analysts say a high-performing economy needs both strong exports and steady consumer spending.
Common combinations
- high-performing team
- Our high-performing team finished the project two weeks early.
- high-performing school
- Parents move to the area because of its high-performing schools.
- high-performing employee
- High-performing employees often get the first chance at training courses.
- consistently high-performing
- She has been consistently high-performing since she joined the firm.
- high-performing economy
- A high-performing economy attracts foreign investment.
Synonyms and how they differ
- top-performing
- Very close in meaning, but it stresses being at the very top of a group rather than simply above average.
- successful
- More general and weaker; it says something works well, without the idea of measured performance.
- productive
- Focuses on how much useful work is produced, so it fits tasks and workers better than whole organizations.
Opposites
Word family
- perform verb
- to carry out a task or take part in a show
- performance noun
- how well someone or something does a job
- performer noun
- a person who acts, sings, or dances for an audience
Commonly confused: high-performing or high-performance?
high-performing vs high-performance
High-performance describes a thing built to work at a very high level, as in a high-performance car. High-performing describes someone or something that actually gets strong results.
Practice
Which sentence uses the adjective correctly?
Choose one answer.
The compound adjective is written with a hyphen between high and performing: high-performing graduates. "Highly-performing" is wrong because highly does not combine this way, "high perform" is missing the -ing form, and "high-performingly" invents an adverb that does not exist.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “high-performing”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.