excellent
- 01 A2 Elementary
extremely good or of very high quality.
possessing outstanding qualities or superior merit; exceptionally good of its kind.
Simple“The hotel provided excellent service during our entire stay.”
In context“The research team produced an excellent report that clearly outlined the potential risks and benefits of the new medical procedure.”
UsageUsually functions as a non-gradable adjective; it is rarely used with 'very' but often pairs with 'absolutely'.
PitfallThe food was very excellent. The food was absolutely excellent.Because 'excellent' already means 'very good', you should use 'absolutely' or 'really' instead of 'very' to add emphasis.
From Middle English excellent, from Old French excellent, from Latin excellēns (“elevated, exalted”), present participle of excellō (“elevate, exult”), equivalent to excel + -ent.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.