Eggcorn Forum

To say that something is “far and away the best” is to heap exceptional praise on it. The variant “far in a way the best” seems to qualify that praise in a way that the writers probably didn’t intend. This tends to show up a lot on discussion forums, but the first citation below is from the PBS website. Examples:

The music for our Hong Kong episodes was by far in a way the most difficult.
http://www.pbs.org/weekendexplorer/orig … /index.htm

The 19th century and the present are by far in a way the optimal result: a general space of self-constitution and self-regulation wedded to a certain space of productive intensity (in the first instance that of nations, regulated by morals, and now that of the world, regulated by ethics).
http://www.watsoninstitute.org/infopeac … ouglas.cfm

He’s by far in a way one of the better GM’s in major league baseball and it shows.
http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/DJ … um_in_Week

The Hasselblad was far in a way superior in sharpness and contrast.
http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=004kby

It’s interesting that the “far in a way” phrase is often awkwardly conflated with “by far.” Paul Brians has commented on the conflation of “by far” and “far and away” in his usual concise and entertaining way:

You could say that Halloween is by far your favorite holiday, or you can say that it’s far and away your favorite holiday; but if you combine the two expressions and say “by far and away” you’ll annoy some people and puzzle others who can’t figure out why it doesn’t sound quite right.
http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/byfar.html