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:
You should question which sponsor wants to commit serious dollars to an athletic department that doesn’t fully commit to pursuing excellence in the most important endeavor of football.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
Since its excellence needs no explaining, here are a few others that are as worthy of our appreciation, including a heartwarming duet that epitomizes Parton’s universal appeal.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
The excellence of all the Egyptian works is explained when we learn that the British archaeologist Howard Carter, who excavated the tomb of Tutankamen, was Gulbenkian’s adviser.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
“Apple is already so large, profitable, and deeply embedded in its customers’ lives that incremental excellence may no longer be enough to redefine the company,” Mohan cautioned.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
His team wasn’t up to the usual Granger standards of excellence.
From "Here to Stay" by Sara Farizan
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
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
What saves it is that no one cares about anything but the astonishing excellences of Miss Laurette Taylor as the infinitely pathetic mother.
From Time Magazine Archive
With all these excellences he was not without his defects.
From Lord Chatham His Early Life and Connections by Archibald Phillip Primrose Rosebery
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.
