Ace

Part of speech: noun, verb, adjective

Pronunciation: /eɪs/

Definitions

1. A playing card marked with a single suit symbol and usually considered highest or lowest in rank ; a person who is extremely proficient or talented in a particular area or activity ; a point made by serving the ball and winning the rally without the opponent touching it in tennis
2. The card in a deck featuring a solitary mark that often holds the highest or lowest value ; an individual recognized for exceptional skill or achievement in a field ; a successful serve in tennis that the receiver fails to touch, scoring a point directly
3. A single-symbol card in games that may rank at the top or bottom ; someone who excels notably at a task or sport ; a tennis point earned when the serve lands in play and opponent cannot return it

Etymology: Ace comes from Latin "as," the name of a small copper coin and also a unit of weight, which was the smallest and most basic unit in the Roman system of counting. That humble origin explains the word's early sense: something of the lowest value. In English, an ace once meant the single pip on a die or card, and the card's top rank came later, when a card showing one symbol began to outrank the rest in games. The route into English ran through Old French, where "as" had become a word for a single point on dice, and the English borrowing took that dice sense first. Over time the same word spread to cards, tennis serves that the receiver cannot touch, and in informal speech a person who excels at something.

Synonyms: expert, master, whiz, pro, champion

Antonyms: amateur, novice, beginner, dabbler