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Excellence; virtue; dignity; worth; superiority. His excellency is over Israel. Ps. lxviii. 34. Extinguish in men the sense of their own excellency. Hooker.

The quality of being amiable; amiableness; sweetness of disposition. Every excellency is a degree of amiability. Jer. Taylor.

an ordinary elegance; to array; to adorn; to embellish. Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency. Job xl. 10. And deck my body in gay ornaments. Shak. The dew with spangles decked the ground. Dryden.

hath been done to Mordecai for this Esth. vi. 3. Reuben, thou art my firstborn, . . . the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. Gen. xlix. 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.

; that which brings or gives renown; an object of pride or boast; the occasion of praise; excellency; brilliancy; splendor. Think it no glory to swell in tyranny. Sir P. Sidney. Jewels lose their glory if neglected. Shak. Your sex's glory 't is to shine unknown. Young.

A cause of respect and fame; a glory; an excellency; an ornament; as, he is an honor to his nation.

edged ascendency; as, he is a man of influence in the community. Such influence hath your excellency. Sir P. Sidney.

Highness; excellency; -- with a possessive pronoun, a title of dignity; as, their high mightinesses.

s to say; to wit; videlicet; -- introducing a particular or specific designation. For the excellency of the soul, namely, its power of divining dreams; that several such divinations have been made, none Addison.

The state or condition of being prime or first, as in time, place, rank, etc., hence, excellency; supremacy. [R.] De Quincey.