[meditative]

Slightly off topic, but since there are linguists here I thought I'd ask. Does the word winningest seem wrong to other people? It's such a foreign word to me that feels absolutely wrong. I only really hear it when watching US sports.

I'm from Australia, where we follow en-GB relatively closely for perspective.

[pacaro]

It feels ugly to me, but there doesn't seem to be a concise alternative.

It's usually used to refer to a person's record of wins, as in the coach who has lead a team to more wins than any other coach, at which point they are the winningest.

He's the...

winningest coach

most successful coach when measured by how many wins

coach with the best win-loss ratio

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[cik2e]

“Most winning” would be the correct alternative, with the same number of syllables although to me it does feel more concise. As an American, I also hate this made up word.

[PhineasRex]

While it looks weird written down, "winningest" feels lovely in the mouth

[Lammy]

"ultimate"?

Then the runner-up is the penultimate.