The acme of something is its highest point of achievement or excellence.

The apogee of something is its highest or greatest point, especially in reference to a culture or career.

The best or perfect example of something is its apotheosis; likewise, this word can be used to indicate the best or highest point in someone’s life or job.

An archetype is a perfect or typical example of something because it has the most important qualities that belong to that type of thing; it can also describe essential qualities common to a particular class of things.

When something attenuates, it lessens in size or intensity; it becomes thin or weakened.

If someone shows consummate skill at doing something, that person’s skill is very great or almost perfect in every way.

A cynosure is an object that serves as the center of attention.

Debility is a state of being physically or mentally weak, usually due to illness.

A definitive opinion on an issue cannot be challenged; therefore, it is the final word or the most authoritative pronouncement on that issue.

A dilettante is someone who frequently pursues an interest in a subject; nevertheless, they never spend the time and effort to study it thoroughly enough to master it.

If you describe a person, group, or civilization as effete, you mean it is weak, exhausted, powerless, unproductive, and/or corrupt.

Efficacy is the ability or power to produce an expected effect or result.

An embodiment of something, such as a quality or idea, is a visible representation or concrete expression of it.

If you emulate someone, you try to behave the same way they do because you admire them a great deal.

An exemplary person is one that sets an ideal or praiseworthy example for others to follow.

Something that exemplifies something else serves as an example of it, illustrates it, or demonstrates it.

Someone who is feckless is incompetent and lacks the determination or skill to achieve much of anything at all in life.

A fledgling business endeavor is just beginning or developing.

The nadir of a situation is its lowest point.

A neophyte is a person who is just beginning to learn a subject or skill—or how to do an activity of some kind.

Something nonpareil has no equal because it is much better than all others of its kind or type.

If you are a novice at an activity, you have just begun or started out doing it.

If something is obsolescent, it is slowly becoming no longer needed because something newer or more effective has been invented.

A paradigm shift is an important change in which one way of thinking about something is replaced by a completely new way of thinking about it.

A paragon is an example of a thing or person at its or their very best.

When you personify something, such as a quality, you are the perfect example of it.

If someone reaches a pinnacle of something—such as a career or mountain—they have arrived at the highest point of it.

Something is quintessential when it is a perfect example of its type.

Something that is superlative, such as an act or deed, is excellent, outstanding, or simply the best.

A tyro has just begun learning something.

Something that is vintage is first-rate and of excellent quality; it is often of a past time and is a classic representative of its kind.

The zenith of something is its highest, most powerful, or most successful point.