From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishexcelex‧cel /ɪkˈsel/ verb (excelled, excelling) 1 [intransitive, not in progressive]DO WELL to do something very well, or much better than most peopleexcel at/in Rick has always excelled at foreign languages.2 → excel yourself→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
excel• Alyse was a skilled rider and tried to help me with my technique, but I never excelled.• He frequently rode and hunted, and enjoyed swimming, at which he excelled.• I didn't exactly excel academically and I left school as soon as I had the chance.• Schools that excel and attract more students rarely grow or clone themselves.• The kind of tasks it might excel at are assembling keyboards and putting gearboxes or electric motors together.• He played cricket for Middlesex but it was football that he really excelled at.• Costner has excelled himself in this movie - definitely his best performance yet.• Parallel distributed computing excels in perception, visualization, and simulation.• Many parents put too much pressure on their children to excel in school.• You want your children to excel in sports?excel at/in• Internal: What must we excel at.• Rick has always excelled at foreign languages.• What director Michael Winterbottom excels at, instead, is creating an atmosphere of vague religious resonance.• The Arabs did not just excel at managing debt.• Some of the latter may excel at specialised subjects such as engineering or finance.• What makes them excel in the communications business?• The Coelenterates, of which corals are a good example, excel in the variety of their means of replication.• Scotch and Bubba excelled in their fall semester.Origin excel (1400-1500) Latin excellere, from -cellere “to rise, stick up” 