How to Use at best in a Sentence

at best

phrase

• For years, testing was spotty at best, and doctors often weren’t aware of the syndrome.
  — Burkhard Bilger, New Yorker, 29 June 2026
• Merlin Rohl has been trialled there in pre-season games, but that looks like a partial fit at best.
  — Luke Bosher, New York Times, 31 July 2026
• But the ventures were met with, at best, mixed reviews and, at worst, outright hostility.
  — Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 19 Aug. 2026
• Most highway expansion projects are justified on travel time savings that are at best short lived.
  — Pete Harrison, Hartford Courant, 6 July 2026
• Arredondo is a fringe prospect at best and that trade was really lopsided in favor of the Rangers.
  — Jim Bowden, New York Times, 4 Aug. 2026
• Most of these posts and videos barely get any attention, racking up only, at best, a few hundred likes and a few thousand views.
  — Frank Landymore, Futurism, 6 Aug. 2026
• For the novice, wine can be mysterious at best, and intimidating at worst.
  — Sean Timberlake, Sacbee.com, 10 Sep. 2026
• Afghanistan’s women are today treated like property at best, and criminals at worst.
  — Mark Sappenfield, Christian Science Monitor, 14 Aug. 2026
• Conventional rules are at best just that, conventional; at worst, bad advice.
  — Forbes.com, 23 July 2026
• That is an impressive track record for any artist, as many successful acts have only seen one or two efforts (at best) accomplish the feat.
  — Hugh McIntyre, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026
• Policy proposals such as raising the minimum wage can have a modest impact, at best, on the wealth gap.
  — Peter Georgescu, Forbes.com, 21 July 2026
• Trump devotees are left with incomplete (at best) information.
  — Brian Stelter, CNN Money, 4 Aug. 2026
• There would be criticism of the league’s half-hearted (at best) effort to increase the number of Black coaches.
  — Will Leitch, Washington Post, 10 Sep. 2026
• His work habits are inconsistent at best, and his lack of follow-through directly affects my ability to do my job well.
  — Harriette Cole, Mercury News, 24 July 2026
• The cost of attending has become eye-watering at best, prohibitive at worst.
  — Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 28 Aug. 2026
• Caulfield is not accusing Audible of theft, but is making clear how the rights situation is murky at best.
  — Jake Kanter, Deadline, 3 Sep. 2026
• Players, coaches, and analysts all agreed that the red card was harsh at best, and inaccurately given at worst.
  — Ian Miller Outkick, FOXNews.com, 6 July 2026
• To think that risk disappears when hiring an expert is, at best, naïve and, at worst, strategically negligent.
  — Vicente Pava, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
• As long as these two men lead their respective countries, the likelihood is that their summits will barely be able to manage the rivalry at best.
  — Orville Schell, Foreign Affairs, 16 Sep. 2026
• And even though access to such banalities may sound brain-deadening, and at best dull, some of the most famous people in the world are now live-streamers.
  — Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2026
• And without one, treatment becomes guesswork, ineffective at best, harmful at worst.
  — Jerome Groopman, The New York Review of Books, 5 Sep. 2026
• The original decision to hand Baloguin a red card was, at best, terrible.
  — Mac Engel july 5, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 5 July 2026
• Today, by contrast, the legal position of private actors is, at best, uncertain.
  — Rainer Zitelmann, Space.com, 11 Aug. 2026
• This month’s headline reading is expected to show a small increase at best as higher gas prices and lower auto sales likely weighed on consumer spending.
  — Bill Stone, Forbes.com, 9 Aug. 2026
• Disenfranchising or, at best, confusing their voters risks their own electoral success, too.
  — Sorelle Wyckoff Gaynor, The Conversation, 17 July 2026
• Collecting bureaucrats’ signatures is at best a distraction from those efforts.
  — Editorial, Boston Herald, 16 July 2026
• If a claim is substantiated, the plagiarist is seen as sloppy or lazy at best, and fundamentally dishonest at worst.
  — Roger J. Kreuz, The Conversation, 21 Aug. 2026
• Five-time World Cup winners Brazil have the attackers for it, but their midfield and defence were at best meandering, at worst anaemic.
  — Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 11 July 2026
• Trump, meanwhile, will be at best a lame-duck president within weeks of the summit—or worse, if the Democrats are able to take back the House or the Senate.
  — Jonathan A. Czin, The Atlantic, 14 Sep. 2026
• Shaheed is the third (at best) option in the passing game of a run-first team that will be rolling out a backup under center until Sam Darnold’s butt heals (true story).
  — Gary Davenport, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2026