English in everyday life
Proverbs
Explore English sayings from most to least frequent in a published American English corpus. Alternate forms are collected together.
About these frequency groups
Groups use full-form occurrence counts in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), recorded in 2016–2017. For a proverb with several forms, we use the highest individual count, since adding overlapping forms could count the same occurrence twice.
These are historical American English corpus counts, not estimates of how often everyone uses a saying today. A zero means no full-form match was recorded. The source’s separate familiarity ratings are retained in the data but do not determine this ordering.
We grouped variants, merged reviewed duplicate entries, and preserved existing editorial wording. The source includes historical and dated sayings; inclusion is not an endorsement.
Expressions containing best, including its inflections. Clear word filter
57 entries
Not observed in this corpus
No full-form matches recorded; this does not mean the proverb is never used
Buy the best and you only cry once
First thoughts are best
First up, best dressed
Good things come in pairs
Matching variant: The best things come in pairs
Good, better, best: never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best
He profits most who serves best
It's best to be on the safe side
Sacred cows make great hamburgers
Matching variant: Sacred cows make the best hamburgers
Second best is better than nothing
That government is best which governs not at all
The best friend is God
The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray
The best man for the job may be a woman
The best preacher is the heart
The best way to get over someone is to get under someone else
The good is the enemy of the best
Time is a great teacher
Matching variant: The best teacher is time