different between excellent vs divine

English

Etymology

From Middle English excellent, from Old French excellent, from Latin excell?ns (“elevated, exalted”), present participle of excell? (“elevate, exult”), equivalent to excel +? -ent.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??ks?l?nt/, /??ks?l?nt/

Adjective

excellent (comparative excellenter or more excellent, superlative excellentest or most excellent)

1. Having excelled, having surpassed.
2. Of higher or the highest quality; splendid.

   • A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.

3. Exceptionally good of its kind.

4. Superior in kind or degree, irrespective of moral quality.
   • 1754-1762, David Hume, The History of England

     Elizabeth, therefore, who was an excellent hypocrite

   • Their sorrows are most excellent.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:excellent

Antonyms

• poor
• terrible

Derived terms

• excellence
• excellently
• excellentness

Related terms

• excel

Translations

Adverb

excellent (comparative more excellent, superlative most excellent)

1. (obsolete) Excellently.
   • , New York Review Books 2001, p.287:

     Lucian, in his tract de Mercede conductis, hath excellent well deciphered such men's proceedings in his picture of Opulentia […].

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch excellent, from Middle French excellent, from Old French excellent, from Latin excell?ns.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??k.s??l?nt/
• Hyphenation: ex?cel?lent
• Rhymes: -?nt

Adjective

excellent (comparative excellenter, superlative excellentst)

1. (formal) excellent, splendid

   Synonyms: uitmuntend, uitstekend

Inflection

Related terms

• excellentie

French

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin excellens.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k.s?.l??/

Adjective

excellent (feminine singular excellente, masculine plural excellents, feminine plural excellentes)

1. excellent; splendid

Usage notes

This adjective is generally placed before the noun it modifies.

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k.s?l/

Verb

excellent

1. third-person plural present indicative of exceller
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of exceller

Further reading

• “excellent” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Verb

excellent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of excell?

Middle French

Noun

excellent m (feminine singular excellente, masculine plural excellens, feminine plural excellentes)

1. excellent

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin excell?ns.

Pronunciation

Adjective

excellent m (feminine singular excellenta, masculine plural excellents, feminine plural excellentas)

1. excellent

Related terms

• excelléncia
• excellir

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: d?-v?n?, IPA^(key): /d??va?n/
• Rhymes: -a?n

Etymology 1

From Old French divin, from Latin d?v?nus (“of a god”), from divus (“god”).

Adjective

divine (comparative more divine, superlative most divine)

1. Of or pertaining to a god.
2. Eternal, holy, or otherwise godlike.
3. Of superhuman or surpassing excellence.
4. Beautiful, heavenly.
5. (obsolete) Foreboding; prescient.
6. (obsolete, of souls) immortal; elect or saved after death
   • 1632, Thomas Heywood, The Iron Age, Part 2:

     (Of that at lea?ure) but the bloody ?tage
     On which to act, Generall this night is thine,
     Thou lye?t downe mortall, who mu?t ri?e diuine.
7. Relating to divinity or theology.

   • church history and other divine learning

Synonyms

• (of or pertaining to a god): deific, godlike, godly
• (eternal, holy): hallowed, holy, sacred
• (of superhuman or surpassing excellence): supreme, ultimate
• (beautiful, heavenly): beautiful, delightful, exquisite, heavenly, lovely, magnificent, marvellous/marvelous, splendid, wonderful

Antonyms

• (of or pertaining to a god): undivine, ungodly
• (eternal, holy): godless, secular, ungodly
• (of superhuman or surpassing excellence): humdrum, mediocre, ordinary
• (beautiful, heavenly): horrible, horrid, nasty, unpleasant

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

divine (plural divines)

1. One skilled in divinity; a theologian.
   • 1668, John Denham, The Progress of Learning

     Poets were the first divines.

2. A minister of the gospel; a priest; a clergyman.
   • December 22, 1820, John Woodbridge, Sermon preached in Hadley in commemoration of the landing our fathers at Plymouth

     The first divines of New England […] were surpassed by none in extensive erudition.

3. (often capitalized, with 'the') God or a god, particularly in its aspect as a transcendental concept.

Synonyms

• (theologian, cleric): clergyman, cleric, man of the cloth, theologian
• (a deity): deity, god, God, Allah (Muslim)

Derived terms

• archdivine
• school-divine

Translations

Etymology 2

Replaced Middle English devine, devin from Middle French deviner, from Latin d?v?n?.

Verb

divine (third-person singular simple present divines, present participle divining, simple past and past participle divined)

1. (transitive) To foretell (something), especially by the use of divination.
   • 1834-1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent.

     a sagacity which divined the evil designs
2. (transitive) To guess or discover (something) through intuition or insight.
   • 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night

     no secret can be told
     To any who divined it not before

   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 43

     If in the loneliness of his studio he wrestled desperately with the Angel of the Lord he never allowed a soul to divine his anguish.

   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 250c.

     I suppose that we truly are divining that what is is some third thing when we say that change and stability are.

3. (transitive) To search for (underground objects or water) using a divining rod.
4. To render divine; to deify.
   • c. 1591-1592, Edmund Spenser, Daphnaïda. An Elegy upon the Death of the Noble and Vertuous Douglas Howard, Daughter and Heire of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byndon, and Wife of Arthure Gorges Esquier

     Living on earth like angel new divined.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Related terms

• a lo divino
• baculus divinatorius
• divinistre
• Divinópolis
• Divinópolis de Goiás
• La Divina
• lectio divina
• Liposcelis divinatorius
• Salvia divinorum
• São José do Divino
• virgula divina
• voce divinare

Anagrams

• dive in

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di.vin/
• Rhymes: -in

Adjective

divine

1. feminine singular of divin

Italian

Adjective

divine

1. feminine plural of divino

Latin

Etymology

From d?v?nus (“of divine origin”)

Adverb

d?v?n? (comparative d?v?nius, superlative d?v?nissim?)

1. prophetically, by divine inspiration
2. divinely, admirably

Synonyms

• (divinely, admirably): d?v?nitus

Related terms

• d?v?n?ti?
• d?v?nit?s
• d?v?nitus
• d?v?n?
• d?v?nus

References

• divine in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• divine in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• divine in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, 1st edition. (Oxford University Press)

Spanish

Verb

divine

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of divinar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of divinar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of divinar.
4. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of divinar.