exceptional

See also: excepțional

English

Etymology

From exception +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪkˈsɛpʃənəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ex‧cep‧tion‧al

Adjective

exceptional (comparative more exceptional, superlative most exceptional)

1. Forming an exception; not ordinary; uncommon; rare.

   What an exceptional meal!

2. Better than the average; superior due to exception or rarity.

   The quality of the beer was exceptional.

3. (geometry) Corresponding to something of lower dimension under a birational correspondence.

   an exceptional curve; an exceptional divisor

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:excellent
• egregious (most often used negatively, however)

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “forming an exception”): ordinary, categorical, common, general, usual
• (antonym(s) of “superior due to exception or rarity”): ordinary, mediocre, commonplace

Derived terms

• dual-exceptional
• eggceptional
• exceptional case-marking
• exceptionalism
• exceptionalist
• exceptionality
• exceptionally
• exceptionalness
• exceptional space
• exceptional zero
• nonexceptional
• twice-exceptional
• unexceptional

Translations

forming an exception

Arabic: اِسْتِثْنَائِيّ (istiṯnāʔiyy) Asturian: esceicional Azerbaijani: müstəsna Belarusian: вынятко́вы (vynjatkóvy) Bulgarian: изключи́телен (bg) (izključítelen) Catalan: excepcional (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 異常 / 异常 (zh) (yìcháng), 特異 / 特异 (zh) (tèyì), 特殊 (zh) (tèshū), 特別 / 特别 (zh) (tèbié), 例外 (zh) (lìwài) Czech: výjimečný (cs) m Danish: eksceptionel, ganske særlig, ekstraordinær Dutch: buitengewoon (nl), exceptioneel (nl), uitzonderlijk (nl) Esperanto: escepta Finnish: poikkeuksellinen (fi), harvinainen (fi), tavaton (fi) French: exceptionnel (fr) German: außergewöhnlich (de) Greek: εξαιρετικός (el) m (exairetikós) Hungarian: kivételes (hu), rendkívüli (hu) Irish: eisceachtúil Italian: eccezionale (it) Japanese: 特殊な (ja) (tokushu na), 特異な (ja) (tokui na), 特別な (ja) (tokubetsu na), 例外的な (ja) (reigaiteki na) Latin: eximius Macedonian: исклучителен (isklučitelen) Malayalam: അസാധാരണ (ml) (asādhāraṇa) Norwegian: Bokmål: eksepsjonell Nynorsk: eksepsjonell Polish: wyjątkowy (pl) m Portuguese: excepcional (pt), excecional (Portugal) Russian: исключи́тельный (ru) (isključítelʹnyj) Scottish Gaelic: air leth Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: изузетан Roman: izuzetan (sh) Slovak: výnimočný Slovene: izjemen Spanish: excepcional (es) Ukrainian: винятко́вий (vynjatkóvyj)

superior due to exception or rarity

Arabic: اِسْتِثْنَائِيّ (istiṯnāʔiyy) Azerbaijani: müstəsna Belarusian: вынятко́вы (vynjatkóvy), адме́нны (admjénny), адме́тны (be) (admjétny) Bulgarian: отли́чен (bg) (otlíčen), изключи́телен (bg) (izključítelen) Catalan: excepcional (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 優越 / 优越 (zh) (yōuyuè), 傑出 / 杰出 (zh) (jiéchū), 優異 / 优异 (zh) (yōuyì), 非凡 (zh) (fēifán), 超群 (zh) (chāoqún) Czech: výjimečný (cs) m Danish: enestående, eksceptionel Finnish: poikkeuksellinen (fi), erinomainen (fi) French: exceptionnel (fr) Friulian: famôs German: außergewöhnlich (de) Greek: εξαιρετικός (el) m (exairetikós) Hebrew: מְצֻיָּן (he) m (metzuyyán) Hungarian: kivételes (hu), rendkívüli (hu) Irish: eisceachtúil Italian: eccezionale (it) Japanese: 並外れた (ja) (namihazureta), 別格の (ja) (bekkaku no), 非凡な (ja) (hibon na) Latin: eximius Malayalam: അസാധാരണ (ml) (asādhāraṇa) Maori: inati Norwegian: Bokmål: eksepsjonell Nynorsk: eksepsjonell Polish: wyjątkowy (pl) m Portuguese: excepcional (pt), excecional (Portugal) Russian: исключи́тельный (ru) (isključítelʹnyj), отли́чный (ru) (otlíčnyj) Scottish Gaelic: air leth Spanish: excepcional (es) Ukrainian: винятко́вий (vynjatkóvyj), відмі́нний (uk) (vidmínnyj)

Noun

exceptional (plural exceptionals)

1. An exception, or something having an exceptional value
   • 1909, Pediatrics, volume 21, page 276:

     Above and beyond all these exceptionals, by reason of divergencies from the norms of mental and of physical status, there are quite a number of moral defectives.