Which alternative to great works depends on which of its three main senses you need. For quality: excellent, outstanding, superb. For size or amount: vast, immense, considerable. For reputation: eminent, renowned, legendary. Alexander the Great was not excellent — he was eminent, and no quality synonym will carry that sentence.
40 synonyms for “great,” sorted by sense
Excellent in quality
- excellent
- outstanding
- superb
- fantastic
- terrific
- wonderful
- first-rate
- marvelous
- exceptional
Large in size or amount
- large
- huge
- vast
- immense
- enormous
- considerable
- substantial
Important or celebrated
- eminent
- distinguished
- renowned
- illustrious
- celebrated
- legendary
- major
- notable
Intense in degree
- intense
- extreme
- acute
- severe
- profound
- deep
Skilled at something
- skilled
- gifted
- accomplished
- adept
- expert
Keen on something
- avid
- keen
- devoted
- enthusiastic
- dedicated
Which synonym should you use?
| If you mean… | Best alternatives |
|---|---|
| Very good indeed | excellent, outstanding, superb |
| Enthusiastically good, in speech | fantastic, terrific, wonderful |
| Physically or numerically large | vast, immense, enormous |
| A large but unmeasured amount | considerable, substantial |
| Historically important | eminent, distinguished, illustrious |
| Widely known and admired | renowned, celebrated, legendary |
| Severe, of pain or difficulty | intense, acute, severe |
| Good at a particular thing | skilled, gifted, accomplished |
| Devoted to a pastime | avid, keen, devoted |
Great synonyms explained
1. Fantastic
Enthusiastic rather than precise. Its older meaning — existing only in the imagination — survives in fantastical and in phrases like a fantastic sum, where it means implausibly large rather than good.
Best used when: you are expressing pleasure, not making an assessment. In a report it reads as hype.
The turnout was fantastic for a Tuesday night.
2. Terrific
Now almost entirely positive, though it began as a relative of terror and that sense lingers in a terrific bang or terrific speed, where it means frighteningly intense rather than admirable.
Best used when: the context makes the positive reading obvious. Attached to a noun that could plausibly be alarming, it goes ambiguous.
She did a terrific job on the grant application.
3. Wonderful
Warmer than excellent and more personal. It reports how something made you feel rather than how well it was executed, which is why a wonderful evening works and a wonderful weld does not.
Best used when: the experience matters more than the workmanship.
They gave us a wonderful send-off on her last day.
4. Marvelous
Dated in American English and increasingly heard as arch or theatrical. Splendid sits in the same drawer. Neither is wrong; both will date your prose.
Best used when: the period flavor is deliberate, or in dialogue for a character it suits.
“Marvelous,” he said, in a tone that meant the opposite.
5. Brilliant
Worth flagging for American writers. In British and Irish English brilliant is an everyday substitute for great. In American English it primarily means exceptionally intelligent, so a brilliant holiday reads as an error rather than as praise.
Best used when: you mean intellectually outstanding, or you are writing for a British audience and know which sense will land.
Her solution to the routing problem was brilliant.
6. Vast
Large in extent rather than in bulk, which is why it suits landscapes, distances, quantities of data and differences of opinion. Huge handles bulk; vast handles spread.
Best used when: the thing stretches out. A vast warehouse is wide; a huge warehouse is simply big.
The archive covers a vast range of local records.
7. Considerable
Large enough to matter, without committing to a number. It is the formal register’s workhorse for the great of a great deal of money, and it carries a note of understatement.
Best used when: you want to signal significance while staying non-specific. Substantial is its near twin but leans toward things that can be weighed or counted.
The delay caused considerable disruption to the schedule.
8. Eminent
Standing above others in a field, usually through achievement recognized by peers. It applies to people and their positions, never to objects — there is no eminent sandwich.
Best used when: professional standing is the point. Take care with the spelling: eminent and imminent are unrelated words that are easy to swap by accident.
They brought in an eminent hydrologist to review the design.
9. Renowned
Widely known for something specific, and the phrase usually completes itself: renowned for its seafood, renowned as a teacher. Celebrated adds public admiration; notorious is the negative twin, known for the wrong reasons.
Best used when: the reason for the fame is stated or obvious.
The valley is renowned for its cider orchards.
10. Legendary
Famous to the point of being talked about long afterward. The literal sense — belonging to legend, possibly untrue — has not disappeared, so it can quietly imply the reputation exceeds the reality.
Best used when: the fame has outlived the event. It overpromises badly on anything recent.
His patience with first-year apprentices was legendary on that site.
11. Acute
The right word for the great of great pain or great shortage. It means sharp and concentrated, and in medicine it specifically means sudden and short-lived — the opposite of chronic, not of mild.
Best used when: the intensity is sharp rather than merely high. Severe is the safer general-purpose choice.
There is an acute shortage of rural placements this year.
12. Avid
Covers the sense in a great reader or a great fan, where great means committed rather than skilled. Keen is milder and more British; devoted implies long attachment rather than appetite.
Best used when: the enthusiasm is ongoing and self-directed.
He’s an avid birder and keeps a list going back to 1994.
Great, good, or amazing?
These three overlap only in the quality sense, and even there they sit at different points.
- Good is the baseline — satisfactory and above.
- Great is clearly above it, but also does two jobs good cannot do at all: size and reputation.
- Amazing reports astonishment rather than quality, so it fits a surprise and overstates ordinary competence.
The practical test: if the sentence would still work with large or with famous, you are not in the quality sense and most of a general thesaurus list will mislead you.
Where “great” has no synonym
Several uses are fixed and resist substitution entirely:
- Family terms. Great-grandmother, great-uncle. Here great marks a generation, and it hyphenates.
- Quantifiers. A great deal, a great many. A great many people is standard English despite looking ungrammatical.
- Proper names. The Great Lakes, Alexander the Great, the Great Depression.
- Sarcasm. Oh, great. Standing alone with falling intonation, it means the opposite, and no synonym reproduces that.
The comparative forms are regular — great, greater, greatest — which is worth noting because good, its nearest neighbor, is irregular. Worth keeping apart from its homophone too: grate means to shred or to scrape.
Common questions
Is “great” too informal for professional writing?
In the quality sense, usually yes — it reads as conversational praise without evidence. Outstanding, exceptional and excellent carry the same meaning at a higher register. The size and reputation senses are a different matter: considerable, substantial and eminent are formal by default.
What is a stronger word than “great”?
Exceptional and outstanding for quality, immense for size, illustrious for reputation. Above that the vocabulary turns hyperbolic — phenomenal, extraordinary — and starts costing you credibility rather than adding emphasis.
What does “great” mean in “Alexander the Great”?
Historically significant and preeminent among rulers, not morally admirable and not skilled. The epithet marks scale of impact, which is why it sits comfortably on figures whose conduct is still argued over.