What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Excellence vs Improvement - What's the difference?

excellence | improvement |

As a proper noun excellence

is a title of honor or respect; more common in the form excellency.

As a noun improvement is

the act of improving]]; advancement or growth; [[promote|promotion in desirable qualities; progress toward what is better; melioration; as, the improvement of the mind, of land, roads, etc.

excellence

Noun

(en-noun)
  • The quality of being excellent; state of possessing good qualities in an eminent degree; exalted merit; superiority in virtue.
  • Something in which one excels.
  • An excellent or valuable quality; that by which any one excels or is eminent; a virtue.
  • Synonyms

    * superiority * pre-eminence * perfection * worth * goodness * purity * greatness

    See also

    * par excellence ----

    improvement

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Alternative forms

    * emprovement (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of improving]]; advancement or growth; [[promote, promotion in desirable qualities; progress toward what is better; melioration; as, the improvement of the mind, of land, roads, etc.
  • * (Robert South)
  • I look upon your city as the best place of improvement .
  • * (Hugh Blair)
  • Exercise is the chief source of improvement in all our faculties.
  • * , chapter=19
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.
  • The act of making profitable use or application of anything, or the state of being profitably employed; a turning to good account; practical application, as of a doctrine, principle, or theory, stated in a discourse.
  • * (Samuel Clarke)
  • A good improvement of his reason.
  • * (John Tillotson)
  • I shall make some improvement of this doctrine.
  • The state of being improved; betterment; advance; also, that which is improved; as, the new edition is an improvement on the old.
  • * (Joseph Addison)
  • The parts of Sinon, Camilla, and some few others, are improvements on the Greek poet.
  • Increase; growth; progress; advance.
  • * (Joseph Addison)
  • There is a design of publishing the history of architecture, with its several improvements and decays.
  • * (Robert South)
  • Those vices which more particularly receive improvement by prosperity.
  • (plural): Valuable additions or betterments, as buildings, clearings, drains, fences, etc., on premises.
  • (Patent Laws): A useful addition to, or modification of, a machine, manufacture, or composition.
  • Synonyms

    * improval