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Extraordinary vs Excellent - What's the difference?

extraordinary | excellent |

As adjectives the difference between extraordinary and excellent

is that extraordinary is not ordinary; exceptional; unusual while excellent is of the highest quality; splendid.

As an adverb excellent is

excellently.

extraordinary

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Not ordinary; exceptional; unusual;
  • *
  • *
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 23, author=Tom Fordyce, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= 2011 Rugby World Cup final: New Zealand 8-7 France , passage=Tony Woodcock's early try and a penalty from fourth-choice fly-half Stephen Donald were enough to see the All Blacks home in an extraordinary match that defied all pre-match predictions.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=52, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The new masters and commanders , passage=From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.
  • Remarkably good.
  • Usage notes

    * Can be said of all kinds of objects including people, events, things, and terms. * The pronunciation "extrordinary" is often preferred so as to avoid confusion with "extra ordinary", which would be defined as "more ordinary than usual".

    Synonyms

    *

    Antonyms

    * everyday, normal, ordinary, regular, usual

    Derived terms

    * extraordinary optical transmission * extraordinary professor * extraordinary rendition

    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 […].

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