# Most/least favorite? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 26, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-least-favorite/385664 "2006-12-26T21:35:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-least-favorite/385664/1 "2006-12-26T21:35:41Z")
Are these proper word usage? In common use, I know, but technically. This morning I heard a guy on the radio say “most favorite”, and for some reason it didn’t sound right. And aren’t the terms “least” and “favorite” kinda\* at odds with each other? \*The word you’ve entered isn’t in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the search bar above. :dubious: Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2006, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-least-favorite/385664/2 "2006-12-26T23:21:48Z")
Did you understand what he was saying when he said “least favorite”? If so, the construction works just fine. Essentially, “least favorite” is the opposite of “most favorite” (which could be called a tautology, but that would be incorrect: there are different degrees about how much you favor one thing or another). ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-least-favorite/385664/3 "2006-12-26T23:29:26Z")
I’d call “most favorite” a redundancy, since “favorite” means the one choice that is most preferred, over all others. That’s why, when speaking of degrees of preference, we use phrases like “second favorite” or even “least favorite.” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-least-favorite/385664/4 "2006-12-27T00:11:23Z")
“Most” and “least” should be modifying _favoured_ (suggesting a category with several candidates), not _favourite_ (suggesting a single instance). There isn’t any contradiction in “least favoured”. It suggests that of the category under discussion, all items are favoured to a degree, with one being the least of that degree. I have a bigger problem with “ten times smaller”. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-least-favorite/385664/5 "2006-12-27T00:18:33Z")
Now that I’ve thought about it for a while, it doesn’t jump at me like it did. One test is to try alternatives, most of which are more awkward than most/least imo. I use the terms a lot. Maybe it’s because I didn’t hear the whole statement. Or, maybe it was just too early. Superlative is the word I was looking for in my first post. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-least-favorite/385664/6 "2006-12-27T00:29:30Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] “Most” and “least” should be modifying _favoured_ (suggesting a category with several candidates), not _favourite_ (suggesting a single instance). There isn’t any contradiction in “least favoured”. It suggests that of the category under discussion, all items are favoured to a degree, with one being the least of that degree. I have a bigger problem with “ten times smaller”. [/QUOTE] I like that better, but we in the US don’t use “favored” (favoured) as commonly as other english speakers do. At least not in my circles. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-least-favorite/385664/7 "2006-12-27T01:00:58Z")
[QUOTE=mangeorge] I like that better, but we in the US don’t use “favored” (favoured) as commonly as other english speakers do. At least not in my circles. [/QUOTE] [sub]Bloody Yanks…[/sub] Ahem. Well, you do have that “Most Favo(u)red Nation” status, though it might be hard to recognize when not grouped in a sentence with “China” and “human rights violations.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-least-favorite/385664/8 "2006-12-27T01:33:46Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] [sub]Bloody Yanks…[/sub] Ahem. Well, you do have that “Most Favo(u)red Nation” status, though it might be hard to recognize when not grouped in a sentence with “China” and “human rights violations.” 😃 [/QUOTE] Of all the words we missed out on bringing over here, “bloody” has to be at the top of my list. I think the Canuks beat us out on that import. I loved the movie _Limey_ just for the artistry of the swearing. Bloody raw, it was. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-least-favorite/385664/9 "2006-12-27T01:50:03Z")
Like Lincoln’s “more perfect Union,” it’s a common usage considered a solecism by the ultra-pedantic rigorist types. One’s favorite thing is the one thing one favors above all others – but a comparative or superlative construction with an unspoken “nearly” understood is quite common usage. My most favorite thing is that one favorite thing taken from among a group of things which are together my favorite things (cue Julie Andrews). And if that is the case, then in the degree of favor with which one regards an array of things, there will be one thing which is one’s most favorite, and another which is one’s least favorite. In each case, to be logically sound, it should be read as “most/least [nearly] favorite.” And kindly do not point out that it is illogical to have comparatives and superlatives modifying what is technically an ultimate (unique, perfect, favorite, etc.) – that would truly be the most unkindest cut of all! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-least-favorite/385664/10 "2006-12-27T05:17:00Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] Like Lincoln’s “more perfect Union,” [/QUOTE] Not to nitpick or anything, but that predates Lincoln considerably, appearing as it does in the preamble to the Constitution. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-least-favorite/385664/11 "2006-12-27T05:22:28Z")
[QUOTE=mangeorge] Are these proper word usage? In common use, I know, but technically. This morning I heard a guy on the radio say “most favorite”, and for some reason it didn’t sound right. And aren’t the terms “least” and “favorite” kinda\* at odds with each other? \*The word you’ve entered isn’t in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the search bar above. :dubious: Peace, mangeorge [/QUOTE] [maven]“Favorite” by itself means the same as “most favorite.” “Favorite” in “most favorite” and “least favorite” functions to indicate that the term previous to it denotes a position along an order of preference. How do I know this? I don’t; I’m making it up. But it sounds good to me.[/maven] If you’re wondering how else you might express the same thought, I can’t think of any more “proper sounding” way to say “x is my least favorite” other than perhaps “x is my least preferred.” “Least preferred” sounds overly-“proper” in most contexts I can imagine, though. I say use “least favorite” or else circumlocute your way aroud it. (“The one I like the least,” perhaps?) -FrL-