excellence
Americannoun
-
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:
At a time when drama has come to depend on celebrity leads and commercial hype, this bounty of understated excellence is heartening.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
And while those two provided almost all of the runs, England's excellence in the field was an all-round effort.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
In some ways, the R2’s general excellence is just good timing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
Burrows won 11 Emmy awards for excellence in television and helmed more than 1,000 episodes of hit programs, working as a director, producer and writer.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
“Right, I know. I mean, just look where academic excellence got you.”
From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green
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
Each nicely complements the excellences of a distinctive, gifted movie.
From Time Magazine Archive
Confirmed admirers of French filmmaking will also find it sparkling with the usual Gallic excellences: subtle underplaying, sharp character drawing, loving attention to significant detail, a shrewd understanding of the overtones to complex human relationships.
From Time Magazine Archive
With all these excellences he was not without his defects.
From Lord Chatham His Early Life and Connections by Rosebery, Archibald Phillip Primrose
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.
