Excelled

How to spell excelled

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce excelled

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does excelled mean?

1. verbPerformed exceptionally well or surpassed others at something, in the past.

Excelled in a sentence

• She excelled at maths throughout her years at school.

• The new hire excelled in every task she was given.

Where does excelled come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of 'excel', which comes from the Latin verb excellere, meaning 'to rise above' or 'to surpass'. That verb joined ex-, meaning 'out' or 'beyond', to a root -cellere that carried the sense of 'to rise high' or 'to project upward', the same idea preserved in the Latin adjective celsus, meaning 'lofty'. English borrowed the word in the 1400s, at first in the general sense of standing out above others, and the meaning narrowed to being outstandingly good at something. The double l in 'excelled' appears because the stress falls on the final syllable of 'excel', so the consonant is doubled before the -ed ending, the same rule that turns 'compel' into 'compelled'. That single c followed by a double l is the spelling trap many adults trip over.

How the word is built

• ex- (out, beyond)
• cell (from Latin -cellere: to rise high)
• -ed (past tense, with the final l doubled)