meist-

Etymology
From.

Usage notes

 * Past participle superlatives that express a degree can be formed in the normal way, that is with the suffix : die zerstörteste Stadt (“the most destroyed city”). Alternatively, am meisten can be used before the positive form: die am meisten zerstörte Stadt. (The latter is only possible with participles.)
 * There may be a semantic difference between a superlative with meist- and a normal superlative (though this is not the case with every past participle and generally is not often relevant in practice). Compare:
 * die zerstörteste Stadt (= die am meisten zerstörte Stadt) — the city that was most destroyed at a given point in time
 * die meistzerstörte Stadt (= die am zerstörte Stadt) — the city that was most often destroyed in its history


 * Double superlatives with both the prefix meist- and the suffix -st are not seldom encountered: das meist gelesen ste Buch. This is regarded nonstandard usage in the formal register, but need not strike people as ungrammatical in informal use.