Excellency
['eks(ə)l(ə)nsɪ]
Definition
(noun.) a title used to address dignitaries (such as ambassadors or governors); usually preceded by `Your' or `His' or `Her'; 'Your Excellency'.
Editor: Seth--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) Excellence; virtue; dignity; worth; superiority.
(n.) A title of honor given to certain high dignitaries, esp. to viceroys, ministers, and ambassadors, to English colonial governors, etc. It was formerly sometimes given to kings and princes.
Edited by Daisy
Examples
- Lord Beauchamp asked His Excellency to remain with me, while he left us to pay his respects to some old acquaintance. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- Their time is the day of vengeance; their signal, the word of the Lord of hosts, thundering with the voice of His excellency. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Rivalship and emulation render excellency, even in mean professions, an object of ambition, and frequently occasion the very greatest exertions. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- I answered, that his excellency's prudence, quality, and fortune, had exempted him from those defects, which folly and beggary had produced in others. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- Little Rawdon used to like to get the papers and read about his Excellency. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- A committee went ashore to wait on his Excellency the Governor-General, and learn our fate. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- However, I strongly advised the poor fellow to explain the real state of his case to His Excellency, and to acquaint me with the result. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- Ay, but, said Wamba, your chivalrous excellency will find there are more fools than franklins among us. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- None but a compatriot, his Excellency declared, could have performed that majestic dance in such a way. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- I told his excellency that I was entirely at his disposal; and accordingly we set out next morning. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- The dinner too in its turn was highly admired; and he begged to know to which of his fair cousins the excellency of its cooking was owing. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- This letter was soon despatched to his Excellency Palmella; and Amy shortly afterwards took her leave. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- Play tends to reproduce and affirm the crudities, as well as the excellencies, of surrounding adult life. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Poverty was the cloud that veiled her excellencies, and all that was good in her seemed about to perish from want of the genial dew of affection. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- They, their Excellencies, met her eyes in each line, mingling an evil potion that poisoned her very blood. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Love had doubled all her excellencies, and placed a diadem on her genius. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- And then again she became aware of her own excellencies, and began to balance with juster scales the shades of good and evil. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
Edited by Abraham