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/ɛkˈsɛl.si.ɔː/ · adjective
(archaic or poetic, rare) Loftier, yet higher, more elevated; ever upward..
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.
... and when the shout 'Excelsior!' echoed, up the oaken heights, Two hundred heels went thundering all at once, Four stairs at every jump
Adventurous spirits cried "Excelsior," but having had enough of climbing, with several friends we retraced our steps, and reached the farms, where little girls brought us plates of raspberries, currants, and cherries for a consideration.
Use excelsior when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Excelsior means (archaic or poetic, rare) Loftier, yet higher, more elevated; ever upward..
Common synonyms include minikin, wood wool, wood shavings.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
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.
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