What's the difference between exceptional and superlative?

Exceptional


Definition:

  • (a.) Forming an exception; not ordinary; uncommon; rare; hence, better than the average; superior.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) For male schizophrenics, all symptom differences disappeared except one; blacks were more frequently asocial.
  • (2) The half-life of 45Ca in the various calcium fractions of both types of bone was 72 hours in both the control and malnourished groups except the calcium complex portion of the long bone of the control group, which was about 100 hours.
  • (3) Manometric studies with resting cells obtained by growth on each of these sulfur sources yielded net oxygen uptake for all substrates except sulfite and dithionate.
  • (4) No monosynaptic connexions were found between anterodorsal and posteroventral muscles except between the muscles innervated by the peroneal and the tibial nerve.
  • (5) Other haematological parameters remained normal, with the exception of the absolute number of lymphocytes, which initially fell sharply but soon returned to, and even exceeded, control levels.
  • (6) When the concentration of thrombin or fibrinogen was altered systematically, mu T and mup were found to mirror each other except when the fibrinogen concentration was increased at low thrombin concentrations.
  • (7) The penicillin-resistant Enterococcus hirae R40 has a typical profile of membrane-bound penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) except that the 71 kDa PBP5 of low penicillin affinity represents about 50% of all the PBPs present.
  • (8) In 14 of the patients the imaging results were checked against the histological findings of a subsequent thymectomy, which revealed four thymomas and (with the exception of one normal thymus) hyperplastic changes in all the others.
  • (9) With the exception of PMMA and PTFE, all plastics leave a very heavy tar- and soot deposit after burning.
  • (10) The exception to this rule is a cyst which can be safely aspirated under controlled conditions.
  • (11) Except for IAP in hypopharyngeal carcinoma, these values were significantly higher than those of controls (IS, P less than 0.01; IAP, P less than 0.05).
  • (12) The remaining 5 soil samples, obtained from sites that were not in close proximity to lakes, were also negative except for one that contained type B.
  • (13) In all cases, endocrine cells immunoreactive to only one of the paired antisera were detected except for anti-glucagon and anti-glucagon-like peptide 1, which always immunostained the same cells.
  • (14) Label was found widely distributed among all the organs except the nervous system and its rate of disappearance from the tissues paralleled its disappearance from the circulation.
  • (15) In the dark the 6-azidoflavoproteins are quite stable, except for L-lactate oxidase, where spontaneous conversion to the 6-amino-FMN enzyme occurs slowly at pH 7.
  • (16) There was also no significant correlation when prognostic factors were compared to uptake in the individual organ systems except that T cell disease was associated with a significantly greater propensity for lymph node uptake.
  • (17) There was no difference in triglyceride content or phospholipid species between WKY rats and untreated SHR, except for a higher cholesterol content in SHR.
  • (18) All of the above factors except female sex were related to one year mortality.
  • (19) Papillomatosis of the biliary ducts is exceptional.
  • (20) With one exception, the mutant control regions showed elevated beta-lactamase activity in comparison to the wild-type.

Superlative


Definition:

  • (a.) Lifted up to the highest degree; most eminent; surpassing all other; supreme; as, superlative wisdom or prudence; a woman of superlative beauty; the superlative glory of the divine character.
  • (a.) Expressing the highest or lowest degree of the quality, manner, etc., denoted by an adjective or an adverb. The superlative degree is formed from the positive by the use of -est, most, or least; as, highest, most pleasant, least bright.
  • (n.) That which is highest or most eminent; the utmost degree.
  • (n.) The superlative degree of adjectives and adverbs; also, a form or word by which the superlative degree is expressed; as, strongest, wisest, most stormy, least windy, are all superlatives.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The world is in awe of China’s relentless capacity to produce gargantuan cities, each outdoing the most recent superlative that describes its predecessor.
  • (2) This is the temple complex of the Ness of Brodgar, and its size, complexity and sophistication have left archaeologists desperately struggling to find superlatives to describe the wonders they found there.
  • (3) That's a superlative goal from the 31-year-old debutant, who is now assured of a place in history even if he never wins another cap again in his life.
  • (4) He maintained both that this once-unavoidable change was no longer needed at all, owing to his superlative handling of the wider public finances, and – at the same time – that the cut was eventually happening anyway, as universal credit replaces tax credits.
  • (5) But according to the few Trump supporters willing to speak on the record – all of whom speak in superlatives of their adopted country and its people – Mexicans simply misunderstand the real-estate mogul.
  • (6) Increasingly, the paranoid defensiveness of the zealots cannot be reconciled with the righteous anger of those who believe every superlative performance must be suspect.
  • (7) The superlative regenerative capacity of rodent axons may limit the applicability of this model to human nerve tissue.
  • (8) We turn, as ever, to the superlative Complete Review, where MA Orthofer's reading of the Nobel betting patterns is legendary.
  • (9) "We're a bit suspicious of people who use too many superlatives," added guitarist Mark Webber.
  • (10) First Ramsey, enjoying his most prolific season under Wenger, restored his side's lead courtesy of a superlative volley after connecting with Carl Jenkinson's cross.
  • (11) application of comparative and superlative forms of an adjective to nonwords.
  • (12) I was right on deadline and in a panic not only to find fresh superlatives for the most electric hour of sport I had ever witnessed, but to string together any kind of coherent sentence at all.
  • (13) Moses has needed more than the occasional superlative of late.
  • (14) Steaua Bucharest 0-5 Manchester City: Champions League play-off – as it happened Read more Before the superlatives start to flow, perhaps it should be taken into account that Steaua Bucharest were generous opponents for a team with a new manager to impress.
  • (15) It's not quite believable that height is unimportant to Sellar, although he's right that it's fatuous to chase superlatives, given that the Shard does not quite equal the 82-year-old Chrysler building in New York.
  • (16) Here he is on the Nasty Party in 1835, in a letter to Catherine Hogarth (soon to take the name Dickens, as his wife): "... a ruthless set of bloody-minded villains... perfect savage... superlative blackguards..." Two days later he ended another letter: "P.S.
  • (17) I don't think there's a superlative left to describe Suárez.
  • (18) "Of course," he says; he knew "from the very beginning" that his was a "superlative" talent.
  • (19) What happened next was so extraordinary it is difficult to know if there are enough superlatives in existence to do it justice.
  • (20) In a superlative run of clichés – "gone with the wind", "one with Nineveh", "in a word" – Wodehouse revels in, and revives, the contained sphere of an exhausted language (a "small world" of its own) and makes it a little larger.