Repräsentativste

Repräsentativste is the superlative form of the German adjective repräsentativ. It denotes that something is the most representative or most typical within a group or category. As an attributive modifier, it follows standard German declension: der repräsentativste Mann, die repräsentativste Frau, das repräsentativste Beispiel; in plural: die repräsentativsten Beispiele oder Ergebnisse. The ending -ste is used in the singular after definite articles, while the plural takes -sten (die repräsentativsten Beispiele).

Usage and meaning: The term is common when describing a noun that best illustrates a broader phenomenon or category. For example, Das repräsentativste Beispiel der Epoche zeigt die typischen Merkmale. In statistics and the social sciences, repräsentativ describes a dataset or sample that reflects the population; the phrase repräsentativste Stichprobe is used when ranking samples as the most representative, though more common collocations are eine repräsentative Stichprobe or eine repräsentative Auswahl for general usage.

Etymology and context: repräsentativ derives from repräsentieren (to represent) with the typical German suffixes that form adjectives and their degrees. The concept is closely tied to notions of representation and typicity, and the superlative form is widely used across disciplines such as history, journalism, and research to indicate the highest degree of representativeness.

See also: repräsentativ, Stichprobe, exemplarisch, repräsentieren.