optimization
noun
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Optimization started its gradual perfection in mid-19th-century English, when it was derived from optimize, a word first used in the early part of that same century with the meaning "to make the best or most of." In basic applications, optimization refers to the act or process of making something as good as it can be. In the 21st century, it has seen much use in technical contexts having to do with attaining the best possible functionality, as in "network optimization" and "search engine optimization" (SEO). Like the words optimum and optimism (which refer, respectively, to the amount or degree of something that is best or most effective, and to a feeling or belief that good things will happen in the future), optimize and optimization derive from Latin optimus, meaning "best."
Examples of optimization in a Sentence
Melissa Houston, Forbes.com, 25 May 2026
The five-star analyst highlighted that Energy Transfer raised its full-year earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, guidance, with the company capturing its full-year optimization target in the first quarter itself.
—Tipranks.com Staff, CNBC, 24 May 2026
Key focus areas are preventative care and checks-ups, sports medicine and optimization, aesthetic medicine, and sleep quality, backed up by a hospital’s worth of biohacking and high-tech touchless treatments as well as holistic therapies.
—Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 May 2026
Protein became shorthand for discipline, fitness and self-optimization — and brands followed the audience.
—Lauren Jarvis-Gibson, Sacbee.com, 22 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for optimization
Cite this Entry
“Optimization.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/optimization. Accessed 27 May. 2026.
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