The French loan phrase par excellence, meaning (1) quintessential or (2) to a degree of excellence, is both an adjective and an adverb. But unlike standard English adverbs and adjectives, par excellence usually comes after the word it modifies.
Examples
For example, these writers use par excellence well:
Nathan Kensinger, photo-chronicler par excellence of the city’s neglected corners , has just published the last installment of a three-part photo essay on Edgemere in the Rockaways … [NY Times City Room]
Mini-pigs, those celebrity pets par excellence, are being lined up as Europe’s preferred laboratory animals. [The Independent]
In these examples, “quintessential photo-chronicler of the city’s neglected corners,” and “those quintessential celebrity pets” would convey the same meaning.
Because par excellence has earned a spot in the English language, there’s no need to italicize it in normal usage. It’s usually spoken with a French/English hybrid pronunciation, with par pronounced as rhyming with bar, and excellence pronounced in the French manner, excellans.
