Word.ws English Dictionary

excel

/ɪkˈsɛl/

excel verb: to surpass someone or something; to be better or do better than someone or something.

Verb

excel (third-person singular simple present excels, present participle excelling, simple past and past participle excelled)

  1. (transitive) To surpass someone or something; to be better or do better than someone or something.
    • I excelled everyone else with my exam results.
    • Compositions which follow the style of Nissi Belzer's creations in structure but which excel them in length.1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 434
  2. (reflexive) To do much better than usual.
    • Everyone agreed Magnus really excelled himself this tournament.
  3. (intransitive) To be much better than others.
    • But it is as a destroyer of grasshoppers that the dickcissel excels.1901, Sylvester D. Judd, The Relation of Sparrows to Agriculture, page 91
    • 1924: Aristotle, Metaphysics. Translated by W. D. Ross. Nashotah, Wisconsin, USA: The Classical Library, 2001. Book 1, Part 2..
      If, then, there is something in what the poets say, and jealousy is natural to the divine power, it would probably occur in this case above all, and all who excelled in...
    Synonyms:
    rock, rule
  4. (archaic, rare, transitive) To exceed, to go beyond.
    • She opened; but to shut / Excelled her power: the gates wide open stood […]1674, John Milton, Paradise lost, book II
    • I reason, we could die : / The best vitality / Cannot excel decay; / But what of that?a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “[Book IV.—Time and Eternity] I reason, earth is short”, in Mabel Loomis Todd and T[homas] W[entworth] Higginson, editors, Poems, First Series, Boston, Mass....

Proper noun capitalized: Excel

Excel

  1. Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet application software program written and distributed by Microsoft.
    • “Do you know Excel?” ¶ “No.” ¶ “Could you learn?” ¶ “Probably not. I find it very difficult to learn things I don't already know.” Then, remembering the advice that I try to sell myself, I added, “But I'm sure I'd pick it up eventually.”2013, Iris Smyles, Iris Has Free Time, Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, →ISBN, page 9

excel meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

excel in Tamil

intransitive: to be much better than others
சிற ciṟa

excel in Urdu

چڑھنا, غالب آنا, غالب ہونا, مہارت دکھانا, سبقت لے جانا

excel in Bengali

সীমা অতিক্রম করা, অতিক্রম করা, ছাপাইয়া যাওয়া, শ্রেষ্ঠতা লাভ করা, উত্কৃষ্টতর হওয়া, শ্রেষ্ঠ হওয়া

excel in Telugu

to excel
అంగవించు aṅgaviñcu
to excel, surpass
మీఱు mīṟu
More languagesFewer languages
excel in Malayalam
കടക്കുക, മെച്ചമായിരിക്കുക, മുന്തിനില്ക്കുക
excel in Kannada
ಮೀರಿಸು, ಹಿಂದೆ ಬೀಳಿಸು, ಮುಂದೆ ಹೋಗು, ಗೆಲ್ಲು
excel in Sanskrit
दी dī, गमयति gamáyati, उत्तिष्ठति úttiṣṭhati
excel in Arabic
تَفَوَّقَ tafawwaqa, بَزَّ bazza, اِمْتَازَ imtāza, فَاقَ fāqa

Examples of excel in a sentence

  • He excelled at rowing and received a blue in the sport at Oxford.
  • It's admirable that Shelley overcame her handicap and excelled in her work.
  • Some artists, like Michelangelo, excel in both painting and sculpture.

All 40 example sentences with excel

Synonyms of excel

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of excel

Forms of excel

third-person singular presentexcels
present participleexcelling
past participleexcelled
pastexcelled

Past tense of excel: excelled

Origin of excel

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.

From excel. The name was selected in 1984 by Microsoft after being submitted by a branch manager and is thought to convey superiority over other spreadsheet programs, especially then dominant Lotus 1-2-3.

Words formed from excel

Words that rhyme with excel

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about excel

What does excel mean?
Excel means to surpass someone or something; to be better or do better than someone or something.
What is excel in Tamil?
Excel in Tamil is சிற (ciṟa). See Excel meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is excel?
Excel can be a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce excel?
Excel is pronounced /ɪkˈsɛl/.
What is the past tense of excel?
The past tense of excel is excelled.

Words near excel in the dictionary

  1. exceeding
  2. exceedingly
  3. exceedingness
  4. exceedings
  5. exceeds
  6. excel
  7. excell
  8. excelled
  9. excellence
  10. excellences
  11. excellencies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: excel (page history and authors); Excel (page history and authors); excel (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); excel (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); అంగవించు (Telugu) (page history and authors); excel (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); excel (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); उत्तिष्ठति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-excel.wav, En-ca-excel.ogg.

Cite this entry: “excel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/excel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.