by far
156
2.5
- idiom
:
con diferencia
- This is by far the best one.
- by far the most
- by far the largest
- by far the most important
And this pattern was by far the most clear.
- And this pattern was by far the most clear.
- Mental health professionals are by far the best to do that.
- This is gonna be by far the best diva swap.
- YouTube is is it's by far the dominant video platform.
- And this is by far the fastest.
- The earliest ones, Korea and Vietnam, were by far the most costly for us.
Examples
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The United States has by far the most diverse national territory of any great nation on Earth.
Academic text (2011) -
Of all my listings, this property is by far the closest to the new grade school.
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My number six is by far my most recent movie.
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This is by far my favorite one so far.
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Of all the writers we know, you are by far the best.
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Summer, as I said, is by far the most sensuous time of year.
Fiction book (1998) -
He was, by far, the best dancer in the little club.
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Of all levels of schooling, the high school receives by far the most criticism.
Academic text (2008) -
This is by far the smoothest I've seen.
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This is by far the best one.
Synonyms
14
3.7
By a lot more than others
1
3.0
By a much larger amount than others
Far better than the others
How Emphatic
Surface Forms
Morphology
by + far
The meaning 'used to emphasize that something is much better or greater' is directly built from 'by' as a marker of degree/difference and 'far' meaning 'to a large extent', so the combined sense 'by a large margin' is compositional. Similar expressions exist in many languages (e.g. French 'de loin', Spanish 'de lejos' / 'por mucho'), so a B1 learner who knows the words would typically infer the meaning.
Etymology
By far may come from a simple picture: in a race one person is well ahead by a long distance, so far shows the big space between them. That's why we use by far to mean 'much more' or 'clearly the best'.