Excellence

How to spell excellence

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce excellence

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does excellence mean?

1. nounThe quality of being outstanding or extremely good.

Excellence in a sentence

• The company built its reputation on a commitment to excellence.

• The award recognises excellence in teaching across the university.

Where does excellence come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin excellentia, meaning 'superiority' or 'distinction', which was built on the verb excellere, 'to rise high' or 'to surpass'. That verb joined the prefix ex-, meaning 'out' or 'beyond', with the root cellere, 'to rise up' or 'tower', so the literal image is of something rising clear above the rest. English took the word in during the 1300s by way of Old French excellence, where it carried both the abstract sense of outstanding quality and a courteous title of rank. The same Latin root survives in the related words 'excel' and 'excellent', and the title 'Your Excellency' still preserves the older honorific use. A common spelling trap is the soft -cell- in the middle, written with two letters l only when inflected, and the ending -ence rather than -ance, which the unstressed final syllable does nothing to signal.

How the word is built

• ex- (out, beyond)
• cell (to rise, surpass)
• -ence (noun-forming suffix denoting a quality or state)