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  • What are the difference between good at, adept at, and excel at?
  • What are the occasions where one is more fitting than the other?

While I was writing this question, I stumped over another conundrum: should've I used fitting or befitting? & How can they function differently?

I searched for the cut-and-dried answer in several sites, but no such luck.

Alosh
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1 Answers1

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Thanks to @TeacherKSHuang here is:

  • Good at - average, not great but not bad.
  • Excel at/in - very good at.
  • Adept at - usually involves a physical rather than a mental skill such as throwing a ball, hammering nails, or driving a car. Applies to "fine motor control" such as sewing rather than "gross motor control" such as running.

  • Excel at - more with sports and gross motor control, such as basketball or hockey.
  • Excel in - more with mental things, like playing chess.

Excel at and Excel in are fairly interchangeable.

You could use "Adept in" before, however, it's archaic usage and "adept" can also be a noun as in:

  • "He is an adept in football."

I would add to @Sedgehead's answer that:

  • "Adept at" - mostly means very skilled or proficient at something.

Summary:

You can be good at/in {doing} something (but not proficient), you can be excel at or excel in (Excellent) {doing} something, you can be adept at/in, proficient at/in/with, skilled at/in/with, expert at/on/in or skillful at/in/with.

Here are examples of using these adjectives with prepositions adept, skilled, proficient, skillful, excellent and good.

SovereignSun
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  • Note that none of these have any real *objective* meaning. Someone can say they are "adept" at something which someone else thinks they are merely "adequate" at. Instead the words should be ranked *relative to each other* in terms of better/worse ability. For example, "adept" is better than "good", and "excel at" is (somewhat) better than "adept". – Andrew May 16 '17 at 14:27