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Excellent vs Distinguish - What's the difference?

excellent | distinguish |

In obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between excellent and distinguish

is that excellent is (obsolete) excellently while distinguish is (obsolete) to make to differ.

As an adjective excellent

is of the highest quality; splendid.

As an adverb excellent

is (obsolete) excellently.

As a verb distinguish is

to see someone or something as different from others.

excellent

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Of 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.
  • Exceptionally good of its kind.
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=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.}}
  • Superior in kind or degree, irrespective of moral quality.
  • *(David Hume) (1711-1776)
  • *:an excellent hypocrite
  • *(Beaumont and Fletcher) (1603-1625)
  • *:Their sorrows are most excellent .
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * excellence * excellently * excellentness

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (obsolete) Excellently.
  • *, New York Review Books 2001, p.287:
  • Lucian, in his tract de Mercede conductis , hath excellent well deciphered such men's proceedings in his picture of Opulentia […].

    Statistics

    * ----

    distinguish

    English

    Verb

  • To see someone or something as different from others.
  • * {{quote-book, author=De Lacy O'Leary, title=, year=1922
  • , passage=It had begun to take a leading place even in the days of the Ptolemies, and in scientific, as distinguished from purely literary work, it had assumed a position of primary importance early in the Christian era.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author=(Jeremy Bernstein) , title=A Palette of Particles , volume=100, issue=2, page=146 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.}}
  • To see someone or something clearly or distinctly.
  • To make oneself noticeably different or better from others through accomplishments.
  • * 1784 : William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c. , PREFACE
  • THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Per?ons of the fir?t di?tinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ?everal new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and di?tingui?h it from others; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.
  • (obsolete) To make to differ.
  • * Bible, 1 Cor. iv. 7 (Douay version)
  • Who distinguisheth thee?

    Usage notes

    In sense “see a difference”, more casual than differentiate or the formal discriminate; more casual is “tell the difference”.

    Synonyms

    (see a difference) differentiate, discriminate

    Derived terms

    * distinguished * distinguishable * distinguishness

    Antonyms

    * (to see someone or something as different from others) confuse