What does "excellent" mean?

1. (very good) extremely good or of very high quality.

excellent — meaning, definition & examples

Q: Is it correct to say "The food was very excellent."?

No — say "The food was absolutely excellent.". Because 'excellent' already means 'very good', you should use 'absolutely' or 'really' instead of 'very' to add emphasis.

Definition

adj. extremely good or of very high quality.

adj. possessing outstanding qualities or superior merit; exceptionally good of its kind.

simple

“The food at this restaurant is excellent.”

contextual

“She received an excellent grade on her final exam because she studied every night for a month.”

complex

“The committee noted that the candidate possessed excellent communication skills and a deep understanding of the technical requirements for the role.”

Usually functions as a non-gradable adjective; it is rarely used with 'very' but often pairs with 'absolutely'.

The 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.

outstanding superb brilliant

poor terrible mediocre

VERB

excel(B2)

NOUN

excellence(C1)

Excellency(C1)

ADJECTIVE

excellent(A2)

ADVERB

excellently(B2)