bestseller

noun

best·​sell·​er ˈbes(t)-ˈse-lər 

variants or best seller

plural bestsellers or best sellers

: a popular product and especially a book whose sales are among the highest of its class

[Isabel] Allende's new book is spun from the stuff of epic romances: eternal love, lost innocence, distant locales, revolution. In short, all the elements of a sure bestseller.

—Julie K. L. Dam

The Harvard Book Store Café … is not only the obvious choice for the latest best seller but the intelligent break for a shopper's graze.

—Alice Rubenstein Gochman

Two million copies have been sold, and it has been on the New York Times bestseller list for four years.

—Judith Daniels

… the two Fisher-Price bestsellers are the company's Fun with Food [toy] series and the Fisher-Price Fun with Food Kitchen.

—The New Yorker

She knows what the mass market wants—Vanderbilt and Chaps [fragrances] are best sellers—and she has a flair for what appeals to a more specialized market …

—Amy Singer

best-sellerdom

ˈbes(t)-ˈse-lər-dəm 

noun

best-selling

ˈbes(t)-ˈse-liŋ 

adjective

Examples of bestseller in a Sentence

She has written several best sellers.

Recent Examples on the Web

For instance, last year the first Harry Potter was the U.K.’s No. 1 bestseller in children’s books for the first time since 2002. —Eleanor Pringle, Fortune Europe, 30 May 2024

Gladwell's bestsellers include The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, David and Goliath, Talking to Strangers and The Bomber Mafia. Revenge of the Tipping Point is scheduled to hit shelves on Oct. 1, 2024 and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold. —Kimberlee Speakman, Peoplemag, 29 May 2024

While there were a lot of phases of trial and error in this design process, now this carry-all is the brand’s bestseller. —Kerane Marcellus, Essence, 28 May 2024

In 1980, the first Garfield compilation had pounced to the New York Times bestseller list. —Olivia B. Waxman, TIME, 24 May 2024

The acclaimed author of bestsellers like Normal People and Conversations with Friends will publish her latest novel, Intermezzo, through publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux this fall. —Carly Tagen-Dye, Peoplemag, 22 May 2024

The new screenplay is based on Hoover’s 384-page novel, which was originally published in August 2016 and quickly became a New York Times bestseller. —Tim Chan, Variety, 17 May 2024

The Book-Makers: A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives From Wynkyn de Worde’s printing of 15th-century bestsellers to Nancy Cunard’s avant-garde pamphlets produced on her small press in Normandy, this is a celebration of the book with the people put back in. —Adam Smyth, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 May 2024

The dupe below, which costs $13 on Etsy, is already a bestseller on the e-commerce site following the film’s release. —Anna Tingley, Variety, 9 May 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1864, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

best-seller

noun

best-sell·​er

ˈbes(t)-ˈsel-ər

: an article (as a book) whose sales are among the highest of its kind

best-selling

-ˈsel-iŋ

adjective