excel
- 01 C1 Advanced
v.to do something better than another person or group.
v.to surpass or outdo others in achievement or quality. Transitive use is less common in modern speech than the intransitive form.
Simple“The young athlete hoped to excel her previous record in the long jump.”
In context“The company continues to excel its competitors in terms of both innovative design and sustainable manufacturing practices.”
SynonymsAntonyms - 02 B1 Intermediate
n.a popular computer program used for making tables, charts, and doing math with data.
n.a proprietary spreadsheet application developed by Microsoft, widely used for data analysis and financial modelling.
Simple“I spent the whole afternoon entering sales figures into an Excel sheet.”
In context“Proficiency in Excel is a prerequisite for the junior analyst position, as the role involves complex data manipulation and pivot tables.”
Synonyms
“In her book and in the media, Panettiere has discussed the pressure her mother placed on her to excel as an actress from an early age.”
“What she couldn’t excel at, she didn’t do.”
From Middle English excellen, from Old French exceller, from Latin excellere, excelsum; ex (“out”) + *cellō, an unattested verb root found in culmen (“height, top”); Compare French exceller. See also culminate, column.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.