| a. | 1. | Best possible; most desirable; optimum; |
| Adj. | 1. | optimal - most desirable possible under a restriction expressed or implied; "an optimum return on capital"; "optimal concentration of a drug" Synonyms: optimum |
| 1. | (mathematics) | optimal - Describes a solution to a problem which minimises some cost function. Linear programming is one technique used to discover the optimal solution to certain problems. | |
| 2. | (programming) | optimal - Of code: best or most efficient in time, space or code size. |