I don't think you can drop the "A" while preserving the original meaning. Without it, an implicit "The" is assumed: "World's worst invasive weed" => "(The) World's worst invasive weed"
Or at least that's how I interpret it as a native speaker!
Rockette here is used as a category of people, a label. She is a member of “The Rockettes”
Similarly, “most invasive weed” is a member of “THE MOST INVASIVE WEEDS” group, and dropping the “a” is done in newspaper headlines a lot, things are often contracted such as Politico or Prez or POTUS etc.
This is false. This would be true for "invasive weed", but adding the "most" qualifier without another modifier indicates a specific member, not any member of a set.
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By the way, I would like to make this linguistic comment:
While the headline is misleading, it is also technically correct in an interesting way
The article says “ONE OF the world’s most invasive weeds.” Let’s suppose it was #22 on the list of all known invasive weeds ranked by invasiveness
But as a MEMBER of that group, one can legitimately label it as “A world’s worst invasive weed” and then drop the “A”
Interesting techique to make hyperbolic claims that are technically true due to the rules of English!
Do people do this elsewhere?
I don't think you can drop the "A" while preserving the original meaning. Without it, an implicit "The" is assumed: "World's worst invasive weed" => "(The) World's worst invasive weed"
Or at least that's how I interpret it as a native speaker!
Huh? Dropping the "A" changes the meaning.
Yes it does but it is often acceptable
“The rockettes have done xyz”
“A rockette has done xyz”
“Rockette does xyz”
Rockette here is used as a category of people, a label. She is a member of “The Rockettes”
Similarly, “most invasive weed” is a member of “THE MOST INVASIVE WEEDS” group, and dropping the “a” is done in newspaper headlines a lot, things are often contracted such as Politico or Prez or POTUS etc.
This is false. This would be true for "invasive weed", but adding the "most" qualifier without another modifier indicates a specific member, not any member of a set.
Here, I just got an email with a subject “ Securitize recognized as top blockchain company, and more news”
Not “a top” but “top”. But really, they dropped the “a”. Get it?
No, the adjective can sometimes be part of the name of the group, if it becomes well known.
“Best Western Hotel offers discounts starting in May”
Does this mean this is really the best Western Hotel?