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:
“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
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who serves as the Smithsonian Chancellor, hailed his "distinguished service," adding: "Secretary Bunch has pursued excellence in the telling of our nation's story."
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
Nine months in, Lupoi has worked to mold a program that lives by three pillars: relentless effort, ball excellence and power of unit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
And during Arteta's nearly seven years in charge, the Gunners have become renowned for their defensive excellence.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
The test of intellectual excellence, however, had been reduced by tradition and unvoiced unanimity to a single area of study: Talmud.
From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok
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
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
Each nicely complements the excellences of a distinctive, gifted movie.
From Time Magazine Archive
Her excellences were her own; her faults lie at the door of society.
From Lola Montez An Adventuress of the 'Forties by Edmund B. d'Auvergne
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.
