The present invention is to provide an organic compound having excellent characteristics as a material for an organic EL device having a high efficiency and a high durability, and to provide an organic EL device having a high efficiency and a high durability by using the compound. The invention relates to a compound having a pyridoindole ring structure having a substituted pyridyl group attached thereto, which is represented by the general formula (1); and to an organic electroluminescent device comprising a pair of electrodes and at least one organic layer interposed between the electrodes, wherein at least one of the organic layer(s) contains the compound: wherein Ar represents a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic hydrocarbon group, a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic heterocyclic group, or a substituted or unsubstituted condensed polycyclic aromatic group; R1 to R10 may be the same or different from one another and each independently represents a hydrogen atom, a fluorine atom, a cyano group, an alkyl group, or a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic hydrocarbon group; Z represents a 6-membered aromatic heterocyclic ring containing one nitrogen atom; and m and n each independently represents an integer of 1 to 3, provided that n is 1 when m is 2 or 3.