Meaning & use
top performer
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Meanings
nouncountable
a person, team, or thing that achieves better results than others in the same group or activity
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a top performer' or 'top performers'.
Patterns
- a top performer in something
- the top performer in a group
- one of the top performers
She was the top performer in her sales team for three months running.
The company rewards its top performers with bonuses and extra holiday.
This laptop is a top performer in speed tests, but it is expensive.
nouncountable
a student or employee who regularly gets the highest marks or ratings
Grammar: Often used in school or work contexts to talk about consistent high achievement.
Patterns
- a top performer in class
- among the top performers
He is a top performer in mathematics and science.
The school gives awards to its top performers each year.
Word forms
| plural | top performers |
|---|
Common combinations
- consistent top performer
- She has been a consistent top performer for five years.
- top performer in the team
- He is the top performer in the team this season.
- reward top performers
- The firm rewards top performers with shares.
- among the top performers
- Our school is among the top performers in the region.
Synonyms and how they differ
- high achiever
- Often used for students or workers who get excellent results, but it does not always mean the very best in a group.
- star
- More informal and often used in sport or entertainment for someone very successful.
- leader
- Focuses on being first or in front, while 'top performer' focuses on quality of results.
Opposites
Word family
- perform verb
- to do an action or task, especially to entertain or complete work
- performance noun
- how well someone or something does a task
- performer noun
- a person who takes part in an activity or entertains an audience
Commonly confused: top performer or top-performing?
top performer vs top-performing
'Top-performing' is an adjective used before a noun, as in 'a top-performing school'. 'Top performer' is a noun.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'top performer' correctly?
Choose one answer.
We need the article 'a' before the countable noun 'top performer'. Option 2 is missing the article, option 3 uses the adjective form 'top-performing' as a noun, and option 4 uses the verb 'perform' instead of the noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “top performer”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.