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
Tipranks.com Staff, CNBC, 14 Dec. 2025
At Thursday night's meeting of the board of trustees, Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo presented an overview of the optimization plan proposed to take effect in the 2026-27 school year.
—Steven Rosenbaum, CBS News, 12 Dec. 2025
To get around those constraints, Banerjee and her colleagues started with a standard optimization approach, described in a new paper presented earlier this month at the International Conference on Space Robotics, which breaks a complex motion-planning problem into many smaller steps.
—John Loeffler, Space.com, 11 Dec. 2025
Even a meaningful portion of The Joe Rogan Experience, long the number-one podcast in America, is dedicated to this sort of self-optimization.
—Chris Cohen, Literary Hub, 11 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for optimization
Cite this Entry
“Optimization.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/optimization. Accessed 19 Dec. 2025.
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