excellent
adjective
/ˈeksələnt/
/ˈeksələnt/
1 extremely good
an excellent book/article
excellent results/work
The meal looked and tasted excellent.
Both the food and the service were truly excellent.
The performances of the cast are uniformly excellent throughout.
She has done an excellent job of adapting the novel for the screen.
It is an excellent example of how a farm can work in harmony with nature.
The party provided an excellent opportunity to meet new people.
The apartment is in excellent condition and is ready to move into.
excellent at something
He was great at sport and excellent at art.
excellent at doing something
Our staff are excellent at advising small businesses.
excellent for something
The experience was excellent for students' self-confidence.
excellent for doing something
Ferns are excellent for planting in shady parts of the garden.
Synonyms
These words all describe something that is extremely good.
excellent
outstanding
perfect
superb
excellent extremely good.
Excellent is used especially about standards of service or of something that somebody has worked to produce: The rooms are excellent value at $20 a night. • He speaks excellent English.
Excellent is also used to show that you are very pleased about something or that you approve of something: You can all come? Excellent!
outstanding extremely good.
Outstanding is used especially about how well somebody does something or how good somebody is at something: an outstanding achievement
perfect so good that it could not be better.
Perfect is used especially about conditions or how suitable something is for a purpose: Conditions were perfect for walking. • She came up with the perfect excuse.
superb (informal) extremely good or impressive:
The facilities at the hotel are superb.
Patterns
a(n) excellent/​outstanding/​perfect/​superb job/​performance
a(n) excellent/​outstanding/​superb achievement
really/​absolutely/​quite excellent/​outstanding/​perfect/​superb
Collocations
verbs
appearbelook…
adverb
mostreallytruly…
preposition
atfor
2 used to show that you are very pleased about something or that you approve of something
You can all come? Excellent!
it is excellent to do something
It's excellent to see so many people at today's event!
Word Origin
late Middle English (in the general sense ‘outstanding’ in either a good or bad way): from Old French, from Latin excellent- ‘being pre-eminent’, from excellere ‘surpass’, from ex- ‘out, beyond’ + celsus ‘lofty’. The current appreciatory sense dates from the early 17th cent.