Meaning & use
optimal performance
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
The best level of work or results that a person, machine, or system can achieve.
Grammar: Usually uncountable, but can take 'a' when describing one particular best level: reach an optimal performance.
Patterns
- achieve optimal performance
- at optimal performance
- optimal performance of something
The athletes trained for months to reach optimal performance on race day.
Regular servicing keeps the engine at optimal performance.
Poor sleep makes optimal performance almost impossible.
Common combinations
- achieve optimal performance
- The team changed its diet to achieve optimal performance.
- peak performance
- She was at peak performance during the final set.
- at optimal performance
- The software runs at optimal performance on newer machines.
- optimal performance levels
- Stress can lower optimal performance levels at work.
Synonyms and how they differ
- peak performance
- Slightly more idiomatic in sport and business; 'optimal performance' sounds more technical or scientific.
- best performance
- More general and less formal; it can also mean a single impressive show rather than a sustained level.
Opposites
Word family
- optimize verb
- to make something as good or effective as possible
- optimization noun
- the process of making something work as well as possible
- optimal adjective
- best or most suitable for a particular purpose
Commonly confused: optimal performance or optimum performance?
optimal performance vs optimum performance
'Optimum' is also correct and means the same, but it is more common before nouns in technical writing; 'optimal performance' is the more everyday choice.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'optimal performance' most naturally?
Choose one answer.
'Optimal performance' is normally uncountable, so it takes no article and no plural. Option 1 keeps the phrase bare and natural.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “optimal performance”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.