BY FAR + superlative adjective

There are more than 10 ways ‘far‘ is used in English grammar.  We’ve also explained the superlative of ‘far‘ elsewhere.  In this post, we are looking at how the phrase ‘by far‘ means ‘by a great amount‘. Remember that ‘by far‘ changes the strength of the superlative adjective that comes after it. When we use it together with a superlative phrase, for example, ‘the most popular,‘ the whole meaning is:  ‘… is the most popular by a great amount.’

Let’s explain this with an easy example.  Imagine you have 10 friends with mobile phones.  7 friends have an iPhone, 2 friends have a Samsung, and 1 friend has a Nokia.  We can say the iPhone is the most popular.  But we can be more detailed to say that 70% is much more than 20% or 10%.  Therefore we can say: “iPhones are the most popular by far.” or “iPhones are by far the most popular.”

Here are examples from movies:

You are by far the most brilliant mind in this chat room.

He is by far the most brilliant man I have ever met.

Listen to the pronunciation.

Here are 50 examples we found by searching in iWeb corpus for:

by far the * *

1 BY FAR THE MOST POPULAR 3984

It’s by far the most popular choice.

On the right are the most common collocations:

1 CHOICE (NN1 ) 168 2 TYPE (NN1 ) 111

3 AMONG (II ) 99

4 OPTION (NN1 ) 96

5 METHOD (NN1 ) 56

2 BY FAR THE MOST COMMON 3761

1 TYPE (NN1 ) 333

2 CAUSE (NN1 ) 252 3 FORM (NN1 ) 158 4 REASON (NN1 ) 90

5 METHOD (NN1 ) 85

3 BY FAR THE MOST IMPORTANT 2850

1 THING (NN1 ) 222

2 PART (NN1 ) 165 3 FACTOR (NN1 ) 156 4 ASPECT (NN1 ) 96

5 STEP (NN1 ) 58

4 BY FAR THE BEST. 1636 5 BY FAR THE BEST WAY 1287 6 BY FAR THE EASIEST WAY 815 7 BY FAR THE BEST I 805

8 BY FAR THE MOST EFFECTIVE 705

9 BY FAR THE BEST AND 601 10 BY FAR THE MOST EXPENSIVE 582 11 BY FAR THE BEST OF 556 12 BY FAR THE MOST DIFFICULT 515 13 BY FAR THE MOST INTERESTING 501 14 BY FAR THE MOST COMFORTABLE 493 15 BY FAR THE MOST POWERFUL 485 16 BY FAR THE BEST ONE 448 17 BY FAR THE MOST SUCCESSFUL 448 18 BY FAR THE BEST, 438 19 BY FAR THE BEST OPTION 435 20 BY FAR THE BEST THING 433 21 BY FAR THE BEST IN 424 22 BY FAR THE BEST! 417 23 BY FAR THE EASIEST TO 413 24 BY FAR THE BEST VALUE 392 25 BY FAR THE MOST COMMONLY 382 26 BY FAR THE EASIEST AND 381 27 BY FAR THE BEST PLACE 324

28 BY FAR THE MOST SIGNIFICANT 311

29 BY FAR THE MOST WIDELY 301

31 BY FAR THE MOST LIKELY 290
32 BY FAR THE LARGEST AND 289

33 BY FAR THE MOST IMPRESSIVE 287 34 BY FAR THE BEST PART 285 35 BY FAR THE MOST FAMOUS 284 36 BY FAR THE BEST CHOICE 278 37 BY FAR THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE 271 38 BY FAR THE MOST USEFUL 265 39 BY FAR THE MOST EFFICIENT 264 40 BY FAR THE MOST FUN 261 41 BY FAR THE WORLD ‘S 243 42 BY FAR THE WORST. 240 43 BY FAR THE LARGEST OF 238 44 BY FAR THE BEST EXPERIENCE 237 45 BY FAR THE MOST BEAUTIFUL 234 46 BY FAR THE BEST FOR 224 47 BY FAR THE MOST CHALLENGING 198 48 BY FAR THE MOST DANGEROUS 194 49 BY FAR THE MOST VALUABLE 191

50 BY FAR THE MOST EXCITING 186

This B2 vocabulary is often found in the ‘by far + superlative’ construction:

effective, impressive, significant, widely

Watch and listen to one last expert example:  He’s by far the happiest man.

Click here to try our QUIZ to keep learning about the most common real ‘by far superlative‘ examples.