excellent

comparative more excellent · superlative most excellent

1. Having excelled, having surpassed.
2. Of higher or the highest quality; splendid.

   A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.

   1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016

   Synonyms: number one

3. Exceptionally good of its kind.

   Bill and Ted had an excellent adventure last week in preparation for their history exam.

   1 more example

   Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. That’s because the lenses that are excellent at magnifying tiny subjects produce a narrow depth of field. A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that.

   2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist

4. Superior in kind or degree, irrespective of moral quality.

   Their sorrows are most excellent.

   1616–1618, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, “The Queene of Corinth”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act II, scene iii

   1 more example

   Elizabeth, therefore, who was an excellent hypocrite

   1754–1762, David Hume, “(please specify the page)”, in [The History of England ], volume (please specify |volume=1 to 6), London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […]

comparative more excellent · superlative most excellent

1. obsoleteExcellently.

   Lucian, in his tract de Mercede conductis, hath excellent well deciphered such men's proceedings in his picture of Opulentia[…].

   1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York: New York Review Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 287