Obviously something can be sub-optimal or poor, minimal, bad or terrible… But is there a word that means the exact opposite, the antonym, of optimal?
Learn English – the opposite of Optimal
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Obviously something can be sub-optimal or poor, minimal, bad or terrible… But is there a word that means the exact opposite, the antonym, of optimal?
Best Answer
Taking the classical approach, optimal derives from optimus, the Latin superlative to bonus, meaning good.
Looking at the Latin for bad, that is malus.
So analogous to optimus becoming optimal, pessimus would become pessimal.
All that said, I have never heard that word used.
We do use plenty of the forms of Latin good and bad, as in ameliorate, pejorative, optimal, optimist and pessimist. However, pessimal never seems to have made it far in the popularity contests - it did get into the dictionaries though!