Standard Lemma guide

suboptimal

adj · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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General-American: /sʌbˈɑptɪməl/
Received-Pronunciation: /sʌbˈɒptɪməl/

adj

Meaning 1

Worse than optimal; of less than the highest standard or quality.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Examples

Near-synonym: submaximal
A quickly produced suboptimal solution to a problem is often more useful than an optimal one that takes a long time to produce.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: inoptimal, nonoptimal, submaximal

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *upó Proto-Italic *supo Latin sub Latin sub-der. English sub- Proto-Indo-European *h1ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h1épsder. Proto-Indo-European *h1epi Proto-Indo-European *-tm̥mos ? Latin optimus English -al English optimal English suboptimal From sub- + optimal.

Across languages

Translations

11 source translations are retained for this English entry.

Czech: suboptimální — less than optimal
Finnish: alioptimaalinen — less than optimal
French: suboptimal — less than optimal
German: suboptimal — less than optimal
Greek: υποβέλτιστος (ypovéltistos) — less than optimal
Indonesian: suboptimal — less than optimal
Italian: subottimale — less than optimal
Malay: suboptimum — less than optimal
Romanian: suboptimal — less than optimal
Russian: неоптимальный (neoptimalʹnyj) — less than optimal
Spanish: subóptimo — less than optimal

Word forms

Inflections and variants

sub-optimal — alternative

Word family

Derived and related words

Derived: suboptimality, suboptimally

Related: none provided

Spelling and sound

Hyphenation and homophones

Hyphenation: sub·op·ti·mal

Semantic map

Other relationships

Coordinate Terms: unoptimized

Sources

Where this information comes from

Wiktionary data was expanded into structured fields by Wiktextract. Matching Princeton WordNet definitions and semantic relationships, plus CMUdict ARPABET pronunciations, are merged into this same canonical word page.

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Real reading context

Examples

Meaning relationships

suboptimal in complete knowledge articles