1.
personal best; personal record; PB
One's best performance or score ever achieved.
Common patterns
自己 (self) + ベスト (best, from English) — a Japanese-made compound rather than a borrowing of the English phrase.
Common collocations
- 自己ベストを出す: to achieve a personal best
- 自己ベストを更新する: to break one's personal record (the most common phrase by far)
- 自己ベストを目指す: to aim for a personal best
- 自己ベストに並ぶ: to match one's personal best
Shorter forms
Among athletes the word is often clipped to 自己ベ, or written PB after the English. Both are casual and belong to spoken club talk rather than broadcast commentary.
Where IT is used
This is the standard word in any sport measured by time, distance, or score — track and field, swimming, marathons, weightlifting. It is neutral in register; the informality lies only in the clipped forms above.