Word
最高
Meaning in Englishhighest, best, supreme
Animated kanji stroke order
Sentence
Related sentences
Related sentences
There are no published items in this section yet.
Word context
What it means
最高 (saikou) means the superlative 'the best' or 'the highest' and denotes the ultimate degree, quality, or level of something in judgment or measurement.
Main meanings
- Colloquial interjection meaning 'awesome' or strong praise, used to applaud experiences or things.
- Numeric or measurable maximum — the top value in a scale, such as a peak measurement or record.
- Institutional sense referring to the supreme position or top authority in a hierarchy.
- Attributive use to mark top-ranked categories, brands, or grades when qualifying nouns.
How to use it
Common across spoken and written Japanese: frequently used in casual speech as an exclamation, in advertising and reviews to market products, and in technical or legal contexts to indicate maximum values or supreme bodies; grammatically it appears with the copula (だ (da)/です (desu)) for statements, with the particle の (no) to modify nouns, and alone as an emphatic interjection.
Variants and close terms
- 最上 (saijou) — supreme, topmost
- 最高級 (saikoukyuu) — top-class, highest grade
- 最低 (saitei) — lowest (antonym)
- すごい (sugoi) — amazing, impressive (colloquial synonym in praise)
Composition
- 最 (sai) — 'most', 'utmost', a superlative marker.
- 高 (kou) — 'high', 'tall', 'elevated'.
- Combined literally as 'most high', producing the modern meaning 'highest' or 'supreme'.
Word class
noun / na-adjective (名詞・形容動詞)
Word
Related words by kanji and components
N3
高価
kouka
high-priced, expensive, valuable
N3
高速
kousoku
high speed, express
N3
最終
saishuu
final, last, closing
N3
最中
saichuu
in the middle of, during
N3
最低
saitei
lowest, worst, minimum
N3
高める
takameru
raise, enhance, boost
N4
最近
saikin
recently, nowadays, lately
N4
高校生
koukousei
high school student
N4
高校
koukou
high school, senior high school
Kanji