excelsior means loftier, yet higher, more elevated; ever upward.
excelsior is pronounced /ɛkˈsɛl.si.ɔː/.
Why “excelsior” is a great word
Excelsior means 'ever upward' or 'higher,' used as an adjective for what is more elevated, an interjection rallying for progress, or a noun for a type size or soft wood shavings for packing. From Latin excelsior, comparative of excelsus ('high, lofty'), from excellere ('to rise, surpass'). As an exclamation, popularized from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1841 poem 'Excelsior', itself based on the New York state motto. The use for packing material originated as a 19th-century trademark. Unlike 'superior,' which denotes a static state of being better, or 'onward,' which suggests horizontal advance, excelsior is vertical and unceasing—it is the mountaineer's ice axe biting higher into the ridge, the cathedral spire dissolving into weather, and the stubborn curl of basswood shaving that springs back from any compression. It is the beautiful, exhausting conviction that the only proper direction is up.
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.
adj
- 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.”
- More surpassing, more excelling.“It was clear from the first three paragraphs that the language employed by Mr Tolkien was excelsior. He was brilliant.”
intj
- Onward; a rallying cry for progress.“... and when the shout 'Excelsior!' echoed, up the oaken heights,
Two hundred heels went thundering all at once, Four stairs at every jump”
- A greeting, farewell or acclamation.“MARTIN PRINCE: Finally, Bart's one of us!
NERDS: Excelsior!”
noun
- The size of type between Norse and brilliant, standardized as 3-point.
- Stuffing material (as for furniture and mattresses) made of slender, curled woodshavings, as a substitute for hair.“These little mangers, with baby dolls representing Jesus, porcelean Josephs and Marys, wide-eyed cows of papier-mâché, and excelsior for straw, were purchased by pious parents for well-behaved children at Christmas-tide.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.