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
Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 8 June 2026
Apple highlighted several performance and reliability improvements enabled by these and other optimizations.
—Andrew Cunningham, ArsTechnica, 8 June 2026
But there's this idea that good parenting requires constant presence and optimization − which is just not realistic.
—Madeline Mitchell, USA Today, 7 June 2026
With enough optimization and intervention, their argument goes, the body can be manipulated into becoming fully knowable, mastered, perfect.
—Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 4 June 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 12 Jun. 2026.
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