卓越
takuetsu
Excellence in Japanese is 卓越 (takuetsu).
Meaning: the quality of being excellent (noun)
Which one should you use?
While 卓越 refers to being preeminent or outstanding, 優秀 is a more common way to express excellence or superiority in everyday contexts such as school or work. If you want to emphasize something as being exceptional or extraordinary in a formal way, you might use 非凡. For informal situations, you can use めっちゃいい to mean really good or すごい to mean amazing or awesome.
How does it change in a sentence?
The noun 卓越 can be turned into an attributive adjective meaning excellent or outstanding by adding the suffix した, resulting in 卓越した.
How do you pronounce it?
takuetsu
Did you know?
- While 卓越 describes excellence, Japanese has a concept called kintsugi for excellence born from imperfection. This is the art of repairing broken pottery with gold to celebrate its history.
- The word すごい, often used to express being 'amazing' or 'excellent', underwent a linguistic shift from meaning 'terrible' or 'scary' to its current positive meaning.
- The character 卓 within 卓越 originally depicted a high table or stand. This visual origin conveys the idea of excellence as something that stands physically above everything else.
Examples in context
- この映画は めっちゃいい よ！This movie is really good!
- あの選手は 非凡 な才能を持っています。That player has extraordinary talent.
- その研究は卓越した成果を出した。Sono kenkyū wa takuetsu shita seika o dashita.That research produced excellent results.
Example conversation
Yota and Yui are discussing a professional artist's work at a gallery.
- 陽太 Yota結衣、この絵の筆使いを見てよ。Yui, kono e no fudetsukai o mite yo.Yui, look at the brushwork in this painting.
- 結衣 Yui本当に、技術的な卓越が感じられるね。Hontō ni, gijutsuteki na takuetsu ga kanjirareru ne.Truly, you can feel the technical excellence.
- 陽太 Yotaやっぱりプロの仕事は違うな。Yappari puro no shigoto wa chigau na.As expected, professional work is different.
- 結衣 Yui私も陽太みたいに上手くなりたいわ。Watashi mo Yōta mitai ni umakunaritai wa.I want to become as good as you, Yota.
Sources
- Pronunciation: Wiktionary entry 卓越, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
