excellency
/ˈɛks(ə)l(ə)nsi
/noun (plural excellencies)
1 (His, Your, etc. Excellency) A title or form of address given to certain high officials of state, especially ambassadors, or of the Roman Catholic Church: His Excellency the Indian Consul General...
- On Friday, June 6, in recognition of their wonderful effort, the Japanese Ambassador, His Excellency, Mr. Takeshi Kagami, visited the school.
- Among those at the reception who wished Brendan and the team every success at the games were the Japanese Ambassador to Ireland, Her Excellency, Kazuko Yokoo and the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Michael Mulcahy.
- Recently the guest speaker was none other than the German Ambassador to Thailand, His Excellency, Andreas von Stechow.
2 archaic An outstanding feature or quality: the characteristic excellencies of Wordsworth’s poetry are listed...
- For we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of ourselves.
- That the excellencies and subtleties of Neilson's verse depend on the natural speaking voice is apparent from ‘May’.
- What is significant to notice here, is that Du Bois seems to borrow some of his descriptions of the excellency of art from classical references.
Origin
Middle English (in the sense 'excellence'): from Latin excellentia, from excellere 'surpass' (see excel). Sense 1 dates from the mid 16th century.