Excellent

How to spell excellent

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce excellent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does excellent mean?

1. adjectiveExtremely good or of the highest quality.

Excellent in a sentence

• The restaurant earned an excellent review in the local paper.

• Her presentation was clear, concise, and excellent.

Where does excellent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb excellere, which meant 'to rise up out of' or 'to surpass', built from the prefix ex- meaning 'out' or 'beyond' and the root cellere meaning 'to rise high' or 'to tower'. The present participle excellens, with its stem excellent-, described something that literally stood out above the rest. English took the word in through Old French during the 1300s, at first carrying the sense of being lofty or eminent, then settling into its modern meaning of being remarkably good. The same Latin root survives in the verb 'excel' and the noun 'excellence', and noticing that 'excel' has only one l while 'excellent' doubles it is a useful guard against the common slip. The trap for writers is partly that doubled l and partly the unstressed ending, which sounds like a faint schwa and tempts an -ant spelling where the correct form is -ent.

How the word is built

• ex- (out, beyond)
• cell (from cellere: to rise high, surpass)
• -ent (adjective suffix)