- 1 extremely good an excellent meal excellent service At $300 the bike is excellent value. She speaks excellent French. (informal) It was absolutely excellent. Synonymsexcellentoutstanding perfect superbThese words all describe something that is extremely good.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 achievementperfect extremely good. 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 Oxford Collocations Dictionary verbsappear, be, look, … adverbmost, really, truly, … prepositionat, for See full entry
- 2 used to show that you are very pleased about something or that you approve of something You can all come? Excellent! Word Originlate 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.Extra examples In an otherwise excellent issue about global warming, I found Jeremy Creed’s article very unconvincing. In an otherwise excellent issue, I found Creed’s article very unconvincing. The meals are generally excellent. The performances and recordings are uniformly excellent. The school is considered excellent. These potatoes are excellent for baking. ‘You can all come?’‘ Excellent!’ He speaks excellent English. She made one factual error in her otherwise excellent article. The rooms are excellent value at $20 a night. You can get an excellent view of the town from the balcony.
Check pronunciation: excellent
