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

The Gum Care brush head is extra gentle, the Ultra-Whitening is sturdier for extra polish, and the Super-Clean head aims for the sweet spot between the two. —PCMAG, 16 Apr. 2024

Anti-Hero,' though, is right at the sweet spot with 97 BPM. —Elizabeth Robinson, NBC News, 10 Apr. 2024

Falvey identified the sweet spot as having about one extra alert per game. —Jeffrey Tomik, Washington Post, 2 Apr. 2024

That’s a sweet spot which seems like a natural fit for tools like the ones Unico produces. —IEEE Spectrum, 25 Mar. 2024

With abundant food offshore and the ability to escape predators onto land, pinnipeds found an evolutionary sweet spot. —Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Mar. 2024

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

Word History

First Known Use

1919, in the meaning defined at sense 2