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Best vs First - What's the difference?

best | first |

As a proper noun best

is .

As a noun first is

ridge (of roof).

best

English

Adjective

(head)
  • (good).
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • When he is best , he is a little worse than a man.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • Heaven's last, best gift
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Schumpeter
  • , title= Cronies and capitols , passage=Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult.
  • Most; largest.
  • Derived terms

    * bestness

    Antonyms

    * worst

    Adverb

    (head)
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:Thou serpent! That name best befits thee.
  • *(Samuel Taylor Coleridge) (1772-1834)
  • *:He prayeth best', who loveth ' best / All things both great and small.
  • *
  • *:At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy?; and what she liked best' and ' best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.
  • To the most advantage; with the most success, cause, profit, benefit, or propriety.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:Had we best retire? I see a storm.
  • *(William Makepeace Thackeray) (1811-1863)
  • *:Had I not best go to her?
  • Noun

  • (uncountable) The supreme effort one can make, or has made.
  • I did my best .
    My personal best in that race is eighteen minutes, four seconds.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
  • , date=September 28 , author=Tom Rostance , title=Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Home defender Per Mertesacker had to be at his best to stop a dangerous cross from Vassilis Torossidis reaching Djebbour, but moments later Arsenal doubled their lead through Santos.}}
  • (countable) The person (or persons) who is (are) most excellent.
  • something that is best
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • to surpass in skill or achievement.
  • To beat in a contest;
  • * 2010 , T. William Phillips, Restless Heart , page 16
  • "You did not win because I was sloppy. You bested me, Uncle. I've never seen you fight like that before.”

    Antonyms

    * To worst.

    Derived terms

    * all for the best * all the best * as best one can * at best * had best * have the best of * get the best of * make the best of * the best part of * with the best * best of the best

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * bets 1000 English basic words ----

    first

    English

    (wikipedia first)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) (m), .

    Alternative forms

    * firste (archaic) * fyrst (obsolete) * fyrste (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).}}
  • Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.
  • * 1784 : William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c. , PREFACE
  • THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Per?ons of the fir?t di?tinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ?everal new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and di?tingui?h it from others; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.
    Alternative forms
    * ; (in names of monarchs and popes) I

    Adverb

    (-)
  • Before anything else; firstly.
  • * , chapter=8
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=That concertina was a wonder in its way. The handles that was on it first was wore out long ago, and he'd made new ones of braided rope yarn. And the bellows was patched in more places than a cranberry picker's overalls.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=29, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Unspontaneous combustion , passage=Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia.}}

    Noun

  • (uncountable) The person or thing in the first position.
  • * 1699 , , Heads designed for an essay on conversations
  • Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
  • (uncountable) The first gear of an engine.
  • (countable) Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence.
  • (countable, baseball) first base
  • (countable, British, colloquial) A first-class honours degree.
  • (countable, colloquial) A first-edition copy of some publication.
  • A fraction of an integer ending in one.
  • Derived terms

    * feet first * firstborn * first-class * first gear * first imperative (Latin grammar) * first of all * first place * first things first * first up

    See also

    * primary

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) (m), (m), . See also (l).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) Time; time granted; respite.
  • Statistics

    *