High-performance describes cars, computers, sports kit and other machines that can go faster, or do more work, than the ordinary kind. A high-performance car is built to be quick and sharp, not just to get you to the shop. A high-performance computer is made for heavy work — games, film, science — not for checking email. Companies love this word in adverts because it sounds like power and quality. It is about what the *thing* can do. You would not normally call a student high-performance; that is a machine-and-kit word, though workplaces sometimes stretch it to “high-performance team.” Though actually, the label is often a sales word: two laptops can both say high-performance, and one of them is still slow. It is not the same as high-maintenance. A thing can be high-performance and still be easy to look after — or a nightmare.