different between excel vs outplay

English

Etymology

Latin excellere, excelsum; ex (“out”) + *cell?, an unattested verb root found in culmen (“height, top”); Compare French exceller. See also culminate, column.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?s?l/

Verb

excel (third-person singular simple present excels, present participle excelling, simple past and past participle excelled)

1. (transitive) To surpass someone or something; to be better or do better than someone or something.

   • La Rochefoucauld, the French philosopher, said: "If you want enemies, excel your friends; but if you want friends, let your friends excel you." Why is that true? Because when our friends excel us, that gives them a feeling of importance; but when we excel them, that gives them a feeling of inferiority and arouses envy and jealousy.

2. (intransitive) To be much better than others.
   • 1924: Aristotle, Metaphysics. Translated by W. D. Ross. Nashotah, Wisconsin, USA: The Classical Library, 2001. Book 1, Part 2..

     If, then, there is something in what the poets say, and jealousy is natural to the divine power, it would probably occur in this case above all, and all who excelled in this knowledge would be unfortunate.
3. (transitive, archaic, rare) To exceed, to go beyond
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise lost, book II

     She opened; but to shut / Excelled her power: the gates wide open stood […]

Synonyms

• (to surpass someone or something): better, outclass, outperform; see also Thesaurus:exceed
• (to be much better than others): rock, rule
• (to go beyond): exceed, overstep, surpass, transgress, transcend; see also Thesaurus:transcend

Related terms

• excellence
• excellent

Translations

References

• excel in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Etymology

out- +? play

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -e?

Verb

outplay (third-person singular simple present outplays, present participle outplaying, simple past and past participle outplayed)

1. To excel or defeat in a game; to play better than.

   We were outplayed at tennis, but we outplayed them at football.

Anagrams

• play out, playout