state of the art

state of the artnoun

• 1

  The condition of scientific or technical knowledge, particularly the peak or highest level thereof, at a particular time.

  • The foregoing may be considered to present perhaps a very gloomy outlook both for the would-be inventor, the actual patentee, or for those having capital invested in a patent, since it is easy to see that it is quite impossible in the ordinary run of cases fully to ascertain beyond peradventure that the state of the art does not somewhere contain an instance of anticipation.
  • which is not only not advancing the state-of-the-art of management but also is believed to be regressing the state-of-the-art.

state of the artadj

• 1

  At the highest level of development at a particular time; cutting-edge.

  • state-of-the-art technology
  • In other words, what I am saying is that when you plan to put into a future aircraft something that is state of the art you are putting in something as far advanced as present technology will allow and that is very much further advanced than things that are in present aircraft.