in excelsis

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin in excelsīs (“on high, in the highest”), as in the Gloria.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌɪn ɪkˈsɛlsɪs/, /ˌɪn ɛksˈt͡ʃɛlsɪs/

Adjective

in excelsis (not comparable)

1. (postpositive) To the highest degree; archetypal, quintessential.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:to the full

   • 1916, E. F. Benson, Michael‎^[1]:

     […] it was impossible to believe that one mind directed the singer and another the pianist, and if the voice was an example of art in excelsis, not less exalted was the perfection of the player.

   • 2008 September 14, Craig McLean, “Rock review: AC/DC, Rock 'n' Roll Train”, in The Observer:

     It can only be AC/DC: black black black! with the first single from their first new album in eight years, Black Ice. It's blues-metal heaviosity in exelcis^[sic].

   • 2018 October 25, James Parker, “R.E.M., in Retrospect”, in The Atlantic:

     Then it’s early R.E.M. in excelsis: seething momentum, cascading guitar arpeggios, power-pop punch in the arrangements, and words that have the intermittent uncanny lucidity of sleep talk (“These rivers of suggestion are driving me away”).

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:in excelsis.

Further reading

• “in excelsis”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.