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

Many survived only a few years, but a bestseller could support its printer well into the following year. — Joe Rao, Space.com, 4 July 2026

The summer’s political bestseller portrays him as a figure whose transformative potential has been utterly derailed by hubris. — Shelby Talcott, semafor.com, 3 July 2026

Michael Jackson Charts Seven Albums in America Seven albums by Jackson appear on any Billboard chart this week, with about half of them standing out as bestsellers. — Hugh McIntyre, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026

Highlights in the collection included a statement necklace with segments resembling the twigs of a bird’s nest and a horseshoe ring, one of the brand’s bestsellers. — Alex Wynne, Footwear News, 2 July 2026

There’s no sugarcoating that Vuori is often pricey, but this Fourth of July, the brand has marked down a ton of bestsellers up to 41 percent off. — Jasmine Gomez, Travel + Leisure, 2 July 2026

Based on the real-life scandal of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, this massive bestseller follows a family of children who are kidnapped from their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat in 1939. — Literary Hub, 1 July 2026

The streamer on Saturday released the first teaser trailer for their upcoming film adaptation of Ali Hazelwood’s bestseller The Love Hypothesis. — Lexy Perez, HollywoodReporter, 27 June 2026

Sure to be a summer bestseller, this is the latest addition to Quince’s line of luxe purses. — Jacqueline Tempera, PEOPLE, 26 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1864, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for bestseller

• bookseller
• flagellar
• impeller
• lamellar
• micellar
• modeller
• ocellar
• patellar
• propeller
• reseller
• scutellar
• beller

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