sweet spot

noun

plural sweet spots

1

sports : the area around the center of mass of a bat, a racket, or the head of a club that is the most effective part with which to hit a ball

If the bat connects near its sweet spot … it vibrates very little, much as a tennis racket feels solid if you hit the ball on the racket's sweet spot.

—Sharon Begley

The shape of the clubhead has a pronounced effect on [golf] shots that are not hit out of the sweet spot of the club …

—Steen Winther

2

: an ideal or most favorable location, level, area, or combination of factors for a particular activity or purpose

Many doctors have concluded that there is something of a sweet spot on the age-education-experience continuum. They seek out clinicians who are no more than 10 years out of residency, old enough to have some mileage, young enough to be up to speed.

—Nancy Gibbs et al.

To seafood men, Fulton is the jewel of the Atlantic coast, the sweet spot on the seaboard, and the best fish from Maine to Florida rolls into the markets in refrigerated trucks.

—Jonathan Gold

"We are considering a lot of options with the site," says Zach Nelson, executive vice president of marketing. "I think we are right in the sweet spot of what's required to make e-business happen."

—Daniel Roth

The winery in Rutherford, best known for its loamy Cabernet Sauvignon, has a sweet spot of 8 acres for Chardonnay, which has produced spectacular wines.

—James Laube

Examples of sweet spot in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In the middle, there’s a sweet spot of products that include effective doses at a sensible cost. —Discover Magazine, 3 Apr. 2024

Marsh saw his changeup velocity sit around 87-88 mph — the sweet spot he’s looked for in camp. —Jaylon Thompson, Kansas City Star, 22 Mar. 2024

The sweet spot comes in finding balance, and the risk is in thinking balance will arrive magically, without an intentional approach. —Bijal Shah, Fortune, 18 Mar. 2024

Using flashbacks to flesh out the seven episodes, the show lacks the narrative momentum the title would suggest, feeling a little too much like homework by landing in a no-man’s land that doesn’t find the sweet spot between politics and true crime. —Brian Lowry, CNN, 15 Mar. 2024

The reader is left to wonder at the idea of Rupert Murdoch, who owned the Voice from 1977 to 1985, overseeing an era of prosperity and relative calm at a paper that by then had found a sweet spot between staying true to its outsider image and the successful retail of same. —Michelle Orange, The New Yorker, 1 Mar. 2024

Of course, taste is entirely subjective, but let the experts chime in—Wild Turkey’s esteemed master distiller Jimmy Russell thinks the sweet spot is around 8 years old, while the legendary Jim Beam master distiller Booker Noe liked his whiskey aged between 6 and 8 years. —Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 17 Mar. 2024

The programming there reliably hits a sweet spot of rowdy fun that is smartly made. —Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 8 Mar. 2024

The interiors offer that sweet spot between high-design and hospitality, and the outdoor area, which features lush landscapes by Nelson Byrd Woltz, is equally impressive. —Kelsey Mulvey, Sunset Magazine, 8 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1919, in the meaning defined at sense 2