excellent

See also: excel·lent

English

Etymology

From Middle English excellent, from Old French excellent, from Latin excellēns (“elevated, exalted”), present participle of excellō (“elevate, exult”), equivalent to excel +‎ -ent.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛksələnt/, /ˈɛksɪlənt/
• (in rapid speech) IPA^(key): /ˈɛkslənt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɛksələnt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

excellent (comparative more excellent, superlative most excellent)

1. Having excelled, having surpassed.
2. Of higher or the highest quality; splendid.
   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016:

     A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.

3. Exceptionally good of its kind.
   • 2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist:

     Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. That’s because the lenses that are excellent at magnifying tiny subjects produce a narrow depth of field. A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that.

   Bill and Ted had an excellent adventure last week in preparation of their history exam.

4. Superior in kind or degree, irrespective of moral quality.
   • 1754–1762, David Hume, “(please specify the page)”, in [The History of England ], volume (please specify |volume=1 to 6), London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […]:

     Elizabeth, therefore, who was an excellent hypocrite

   • 1616–1618, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, “The Queene of Corinth”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act II, scene iii:

     Their sorrows are most excellent.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:excellent

Antonyms

• poor
• terrible

Derived terms

• eggcellent
• excellence
• excellently
• excellentness
• my very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas
• sexcellent
• superexcellent
• unexcellent

 

Related terms

• excel

Translations

of the highest quality

• Albanian: birinxhi (sq)
• Arabic: مُمْتَاز (mumtāz), فَاخِر (fāḵir)
• Armenian: գերազանց (hy) (gerazancʻ)
• Asturian: escelente
• Azerbaijani: əla (az), mükəmməl (az)
• Basque: bikain (eu)
• Belarusian: выда́тны (vydátny), цудо́ўны (cudóŭny), адме́нны (admjénny), адме́тны (be) (admjétny)
• Bengali: উৎকৃষ্ট (bn) (utkriśṭo), শ্রেষ্ঠ (bn) (sreśṭho), (colloquial) ফাটাফাটি (bn) (phaṭaphaṭi), আউয়াল (bn) (auẏal)
• Bulgarian: отл́ичен (bg) (otĺičen), превъзхо́ден (bg) (prevǎzhóden)
• Catalan: excel·lent (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 棒 (zh) (bàng) (informal), 極好 / 极好 (zh) (jíhǎo) (informal), 出色 (zh) (chūsè) (formal), 優秀 / 优秀 (zh) (yōuxiù) (formal), 卓越 (zh) (zhuóyuè) (formal), 優異 / 优异 (zh) (yōuyì) (formal), 高超 (zh) (gāochāo) (formal)

• Czech: výtečný, vynikající (cs)
• Danish: fremragende, fortræffelig, fortrinlig, udmærket, alle tiders
• Dutch: uitstekend (nl), uitmuntend (nl), excellent (nl), voortreffelijk (nl)
• Esperanto: elstara, bonega (eo)
• Finnish: erinomainen (fi), loistava (fi)
• French: excellent (fr)
• Friulian: ecelent
• Galician: excelente (gl)
• Georgian: ჩინებული (činebuli), საუცხოო (saucxoo), არაჩვეულებრივი (aračveulebrivi)
• German: ausgezeichnet (de), hervorragend (de), großartig (de)
• Greek: έξοχος (el) (éxochos), υπέροχος (el) (ypérochos), άριστος (el) (áristos), θαυμάσιος (el) (thavmásios)
• Hebrew: מצוין (he) (metsuyan), מְעֻלֶּה (he) m (m'ullé)
• Hindi: उत्कृष्ट (hi) (utkŕṣṭ), श्रेष्ठ (hi) (śreṣṭh), उत्तम (hi) (uttam)
• Hungarian: kitűnő (hu), kiváló (hu)
• Icelandic: frábær (is), ágætur (is)
• Ido: ecelanta (io)
• Indonesian: unggul (id)
• Irish: ar fheabhas, thar cionn, seoigh
• Italian: eccellente (it), eccezionale (it)
• Japanese: 素晴らしい (ja) (subarashii), 秀でた (ja) (hiideta), 優秀な (ja) (yūshū na)
• Khmer: ល្អឥតខ្ចោះ (l’ɑɑ ’ət kcɑh)
• Korean: 완벽한 (ko) (wanbyeok-han), 훌륭한 (ko) (hullyung-han)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: نایاب (nayab)

• Latin: excellens, praestābilis
• Latvian: izcils
• Lithuanian: puikus, nuostabus (lt)
• Macedonian: одличен (odličen)
• Maltese: eċċellenti
• Maori: huarangi, kairangatira
• Middle English: doughty, wynly
• Norwegian: utmerket, storartet (no)

  Bokmål: glimrende

• Occitan: excellent (oc)
• Old English: æþele
• Pashto: غوره (ps) (ğwara)
• Persian: عالی (fa) ('âli)
• Plautdietsch: groosoatich
• Polish: świetny (pl), doskonały (pl)
• Portuguese: excelente (pt)
• Romanian: excelent (ro)
• Russian: отли́чный (ru) (otlíčnyj), превосхо́дный (ru) (prevosxódnyj), великоле́пный (ru) (velikolépnyj), отме́нный (ru) (otménnyj), чуде́сный (ru) (čudésnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: math dha-rìribh, air leth
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: о̏дличан

  Roman: ȍdličan (sh)

• Slovak: vynikajúci
• Slovene: odličen
• Spanish: excelente (es), sobresaliente (es), prominente (es), excelso (es), macanudo (es), de buten, de bute, paja (es) (Peru), groso (es) (Chile), mostro (es) (Peru), pulenta (Andes), pulento (es) (Andes)
• Swedish: utmärkt (sv), förträffligt (sv), alla tiders (sv)
• Thai: ยอดเยี่ยม (th) (yôt yîam)
• Turkish: mükemmel (tr)
• Ukrainian: відмі́нний (uk) (vidmínnyj), чудо́вий (čudóvyj)
• Vietnamese: xuất sắc (vi), tuyệt vời (vi), ưu (vi)
• Volapük: legudik (vo)

Adverb

excellent (comparative more excellent, superlative most excellent)

1. (obsolete) Excellently.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
     , New York Review Books 2001, p.287:

     Lucian, in his tract de Mercede conductis, hath excellent well deciphered such men's proceedings in his picture of Opulentia […].

Further reading

• “excellent”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• excellent in Britannica Dictionary
• excellent in Macmillan Collocations Dictionary
• excellent in Ozdic collocation dictionary
• excellent in WordReference English Collocations

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch excellent, from Middle French excellent, from Old French excellent, from Latin excellēns.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɛk.səˈlɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ex‧cel‧lent
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

Adjective

excellent (comparative excellenter, superlative excellentst)

1. (formal) excellent, splendid

   Synonyms: uitmuntend, uitstekend

Declension

Declension of excellent
uninflected	excellent
inflected	excellente
comparative	excellenter
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		excellent	excellenter	het excellentst het excellentste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	excellente	excellentere	excellentste
	n. sing.	excellent	excellenter	excellentste
	plural	excellente	excellentere	excellentste
definite		excellente	excellentere	excellentste
partitive		excellents	excellenters	—

Related terms

• excellentie

Descendants

• Negerhollands: excellent
• → Papiamentu: excelent (dated)

French

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin excellentem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛk.sɛ.lɑ̃/ ~ /ɛk.se.lɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

excellent (feminine excellente, masculine plural excellents, feminine plural excellentes)

1. excellent; splendid

Usage notes

This adjective is generally placed before the noun it modifies.

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛk.sɛl/

Verb

excellent

1. third-person plural present indicative/subjunctive of exceller

Further reading

• “excellent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Verb

excellent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of excellō

Middle French

Noun

excellent m (feminine singular excellente, masculine plural excellens, feminine plural excellentes)

1. excellent
   • 1549, Commentaires tres excellens de l'hystoire des plantes‎^[1], Paris:

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin excellēns.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Béarn):

  (file)

Adjective

excellent m (feminine singular excellenta, masculine plural excellents, feminine plural excellentas)

1. excellent

Related terms

• excelléncia
• excellir