From Middle English excellen, from Old French exceller, from Latin excello, excelsum; ex ("out") + *cellō, an unattested verb root found in culmen ("height, top"); Compare French exceller.

• IPA: /ɪkˈsɛl/

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.

2. (intransitive) To be much better than others.
   • 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 this knowledge would be unfortunate.

3. (transitive, archaic, rare) To exceed, to go beyond
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise lost, book II:

     She opened; but to shut / Excelled her power: the gates wide open stood […]

   • 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.: Roberts Brothers, published 1890, →OCLC ↗, page 134 ↗:

     I reason, we could die : / The best vitality / Cannot excel decay; / But what of that?

• (to surpass someone or something) better, outclass, outperform; see also Thesaurus:exceed
• (to be much better than others) rock, rule
• (to go beyond) exceed, overstep, surpass, transgress, transcend; see also Thesaurus:transcend

• excellence
• excellent

• French: dépasser
• German: ausstechen, übersteigen, übertreffen
• Italian: superare
• Portuguese: superar, ultrapassar, exceler
• Russian: превосходи́ть
• Spanish: aventajar, superar

• French: dépasser
• German: sich hervortun, herausragend sein
• Italian: superare, eccellere, brillare, primeggiare, spiccare
• Portuguese: distinguir-se
• Russian: выделя́ться
• Spanish: sobresalir, distinguirse

• IPA: /ɪkˈsɛl/

1. (computing, software) A spreadsheet application software program written and distributed by Microsoft.