excelsior
/ɛkˈsɛl.si.ɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.85 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The size of type between Norse and brilliant, standardized as 3-point.
American usage; Dated; Uncountable
noun
Stuffing material (as for furniture and mattresses) made of slender, curled woodshavings, as a substitute for hair.
Canadian usage; American usage; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "There was with him a whole host of moral heroes, who, conscious of their power to win the victory , and quickened by the inspirations which they received from that higher state of being, were striving, by the excelsior movement of the soul, to attain to those glory-encircled heights from whence they could look calmly down upon the plane of their earthly existence."
- "At this crisis, reverberating among the pines, rang out more distinctly the voice of the excelsior man , urging me to come on. "Oh! I'm all right down here," I answered, gasping for breath."
- "All we know for certain is that our tree, now approaching a hundred years old, was excelsior – loftier than any other ash in the vicinity."
- "It was clear from the first three paragraphs that the language employed by Mr Tolkien was excelsior. He was brilliant."
- "Without comparisons, the beautiful is neither felt nor understood, so that it is the excelsior of the normal type, it is the true + x; it is the splendour of the true."
- "... many people feel that having plastic surgery is a kind of rebirth. I think she felt that every time she had it, it was reinventing herself. It was excelsior, it was higher, it was better."
Etymology
From Latin excelsior, comparative of excelsus (“high”). The name of the stuffing material was originally a trademark. As an exclamation, originating in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Excelsior (1841), based on the New York state motto. Popularized in the comic book fandom by Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee, who chose the term to sign off his columns as it was an obscure term and would confound competing publishers who imitated his style.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: excelsior
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɛkˈsɛl.si.ɚ/
- British English: /ɛkˈsɛl.si.ɔː/