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Best of the bests

English Language & Usage Asked by user97589 on December 14, 2020

I was wondering about this usage and how acceptable is the nominalization of the superlative “best” as in the phrase “best of the bests”. At first I found only obviously very specific uses of “the bests” such as in this example from Google Books:

… five bests (best self, best team, best partner, best investment,
and best citizen) will improve financial performance, then the proof
is in the total shareholder return they generate. Otherwise, the bests
are only interesting concepts or nice things ..

and only noticed its use in contexts such as this idiomatic “best of the bests”:

Ashley’s dream was to be a world-famous artist. So, she was heading
out in a few weeks to attend school and live in a small flat along the
Seine River and study under some of the best of the bests.

but then I discovered loads of “the bests of interests” examples like :

From the stewardship point of view, a CEO in a dual role is working in
the bests interests of the shareholders and is intrinsically motivated
to operate in this capacity.

the administrator should accept the prospective purchaser’s
stipulation and proceed with the sale if he considers that to be in
the bests interests of creditors

However, the bests interests of the child are …

and in contexts of achieving certain result in athletics, especially with “personal”, “personal bests”:

The 15-year-old registered personal bests of 1.62m (high jump), 8.91m
(shot put), 27.43s (200m) and 5.09m in the long jump over two days
of..

So how acceptable is this nominalization of “the best” to you?

One Answer

Using the word best as a noun is perfectly acceptable.

Best is a singular noun and its plural does not technically exist. Cambridge Dictionary

'Bests' is an incorrect way of spelling the word 'best'. Now, there are many who use and have commonly used the incorrect word 'bests'. However, there are various words that only have a singular form. Think of furniture, money, greed, etc... When using these words, you say "The furniture is", "Money is", "Greed is", etc...
You can mind more examples of such words here.

So in your examples, all the spellings 'bests' are all misspellings of the word 'best'. Apart from that, the nominalization of the verb 'best' is commonplace and accepted.

The phrase 'best interests' is also just that, not 'best of interests'.
Example:

I have your best interests at heart. Merriam-Webster

It is also:

Best of the best.

If you want to talk of various best achievements, it is correct to say something such as:

My best achievements in the following fields are: 1.62m (high jump), 8.91m (shot put), 27.43s (200m), ...
or
I have various best achievements which are ...

Hope this helps.

Answered by Akaisteph7 on December 14, 2020

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