From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Excellence \Ex"cel*lence\, noun [F. excellence, L. excellentia.]
1. The quality of being excellent; state of possessing good qualities in an eminent degree; exalted merit; superiority in virtue.
Consider first that great Or bright infers not excellence. --Milton.
2. An excellent or valuable quality; that by which any one excels or is eminent; a virtue.
With every excellence refined. --Beattie.
3. A title of honor or respect; -- more common in the form {excellency}.
I do greet your excellence With letters of commission from the king. --Shak.
Syn: Superiority; pre["e]minence; perfection; worth; goodness; purity; greatness.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: the quality of excelling; possessing good qualities in high degree
2: something in which something or some one excels; "the use of herbs is one of the excellences of French cuisine"
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
114 Moby Thesaurus words for "excellence": accomplishment, acquired taste, advantageousness, agreeableness, appreciation of excellence, arete, ascendancy, auspiciousness, beneficialness, benevolence, benignity, choiceness, civilized taste, civilizedness, class, cogency, consequence, conspicuousness, cultivated taste, cultivation, culture, daintiness, deanship, delicacy, desert, discrimination, distinction, elegance, elevation, eminence, exaltation, excellency, expedience, fairness, fastidiousness, favor, favorableness, fineness, finesse, first-rateness, good taste, goodliness, goodness, grace, gracefulness, gracility, graciosity, graciousness, grandeur, greatness, healthiness, helpfulness, high mightiness, importance, incomparability, inimitability, kindness, lead, loftiness, majority, mark, merit, niceness, nicety, nobility, notability, note, one-upmanship, outstandingness, perfection, pleasantness, polish, precedence, predominance, predomination, preeminence, preponderance, prepotence, prepotency, prerogative, prestige, priority, privilege, profitableness, prominence, quality, refinement, rewardingness, right-of-way, seniority, significance, skill, skillfulness, sophistication, soundness, sublimity, subtlety, success, superbness, supereminence, superiority, supremacy, taste, tastefulness, transcendence, transcendency, usefulness, validity, value, virtue, virtuosity, virtuousness, wholeness, worth
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