excellence
Americannoun
-
excellences
plural
-
the fact or state of excelling; superiority; eminence.
his excellence in mathematics.
- Synonyms:
- distinction, transcendence, preeminence
-
an excellent quality or feature.
Use of herbs is one of the excellences of French cuisine.
- Antonyms:
- inferiority
-
(usually initial capital letter) excellency.
noun
-
the state or quality of excelling or being exceptionally good; extreme merit; superiority
-
an action, characteristic, feature, etc, in which a person excels
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of excellence
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin excellentia; equivalent to excel + -ence
Explanation
Excellence means greatness — the very best. Achieving excellence is never easy to do. Excellence is a quality that people really appreciate, because it's so hard to find. Excellence is the quality of excelling, of being truly the best at something. Getting an A+ shows excellence. Michael Jordan's basketball career was filled with excellence. We love Picasso and Shakespeare for their excellence. When you see excellence, you should appreciate the work that went into it. So much in the world falls short of excellence.
Vocabulary lists containing excellence
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -ance, -ence
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"CLEP Principles of Management," Vocabulary from Chapter 10
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"The MGMT Solution," Vocabulary from Chapter 16
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
To mark PSG's latest display of attacking excellence, we're looking at how the Parisians compare to those clubs who have enjoyed the most dominant eras in European competition.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
A kitchen can demand excellence without demanding suffering.
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2026
“They have a true operator running the company for the first time in a long time,” although it will be a long road to operational excellence, he said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
“Academic excellence has always been central to our admissions process,” the statement said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
The opening words of Antony’s funeral oration in Julius Caesar are, covertly, an ethos appeal par excellence: a positioning of the speaker with relation to the crowd.
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
It is a film of excellences, never more so than in the performances by Robert De Niro and a remarkable supporting cast.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2023
The days after VE Day were perfect for a tragic English opera with an English setting, and its musical excellences were supplemented by a sense of its national significance.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 7, 2013
It is more difficult fora man to judge of the excellences of a dog.
From Time Magazine Archive
Man with a Bull-Tongue Robert Plow, a collection of 703 sonnetesque verses, sings only homespun heroes, vaunts the excellences of Kentucky farmlife, mourns the mortality of Poet Stuart's love affairs and friends.
From Time Magazine Archive
It is waged mainly for “vain titles or childish wrath;” it does not foster, in those responsible for it, any one of the nobler excellences.
From Against War by Desiderius Erasmus
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
