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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Yet Potter was, at best, in a fight with Jay Huff for the Pacers backup center role heading into the coming season.
    — Tony East, Forbes.com, 8 July 2026
  • All of which is to say, the loyalty of both Ulf and Hugh seems tenuous at best at this point, and neither Rhaenyra or Daemon seem the least bit concerned.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 27 July 2026
  • Thune has said that support for the budget resolution in his conference remains unclear, and the path forward on a third reconciliation package is murky at best.
    — Kaia Hubbard, CBS News, 6 Aug. 2026
  • Historically, Western norms during the 19th and 20th centuries held that to not eat meat is odd at best, and suspicious at worst.
    — David Rooney, The Conversation, 10 July 2026
  • For reasons that are, at best, hazy, Lonnie had a meltdown of some amorphous type that had some sort of non-specific impact on his overall psyche, leaving him stuck in a nebulous rut.
    — Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 16 July 2026
  • In my observation, ramp-up times often exceed eight weeks, which means that the typical summer intern is only achieving meaningful output for, at best, the final two to four weeks.
    — Byron V. Garrett, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026
  • Outside of Silicon Valley, there is a tendency to dismiss such prophecies as, at best, patently unserious.
    — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 25 July 2026
  • But this narrative of the USMNT winning formula is, at worst, wrong and at best, incomplete.
    — Michael Morris, Time, 1 July 2026
  • The ones that conceive of African people as topics of discussion (at best), but rarely as subjects with agency who are capable of participating in those conversations.
    — Tamerra Griffin, New York Times, 4 Aug. 2026
  • And injections of stem cells and plasma-rich protein are widely offered but are controversial — and not covered by most insurance — because studies have been at best inconclusive about their benefit.
    — Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal, CBS News, 13 July 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'at best.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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