exceedingly
Americanadverb
adverb
Etymology
Origin of exceedingly
Explanation
Use the adverb exceedingly to mean "very." You might brag, for example, that you did exceedingly well on the big math test last week. Exceedingly means "to a very large degree," so it's best to save it for things that really need to be emphasized. You might be exceedingly angry at your little sister after she borrowed your favorite sweater and spilled ketchup on it, or exceedingly happy to have gotten into your first choice college. Exceedingly has a Latin root, excedere, "depart, go beyond, be in excess, or surpass."
Vocabulary lists containing exceedingly
"Common Sense," Vocabulary from the pamphlet
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A Rover's Story
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"The Ugly Duckling" by Hans Christian Andersen
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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.
Exceedingly cramped conditions in 2020 led an expert on infectious diseases to warn of a mass outbreak of the coronavirus at the jail unless it drastically reduced its population size.
From New York Times • Jul. 13, 2023
Welcome to Illyria! ... or An Exceedingly Silly Retelling of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night L.A.-based troupe Four Clowns reimagines the Bard’s comic tale of twins separated in a shipwreck.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 23, 2018
Consider the bone cancer osteosarcoma: Exceedingly rare in humans – only 700 to 800 Americans get diagnosed every year – osteosarcoma is shockingly common in dogs, affecting more than 10,000 every year.
From US News • Oct. 6, 2016
Exceedingly difficult to put down, “The Paying Guests” should scratch the same big-novel itch that Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch” satisfied last year.
From Salon • Sep. 18, 2014
Exceedingly fertile it seemed, nor can I describe it better than in his own words.
From The Great Captain: A Story of the Days of Sir Walter Raleigh by Tynan, Katharine
Definitions 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.
