How to spell excellence

hear itex·cel·lence/'ɛksələns/nounSchwa and roots

What it means: The quality of being outstanding or superior.

In a sentence: The teacher praised the student's excellence in writing.

The part people get wrong

Watch for double l, and an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as excellance or exelence.

Same family: excellent, excellently, exceled, excelling, excellence-award. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Excellence” comes from Latin “excellentia,” from “excellere,” meaning “to rise up, surpass, be eminent.” It literally carries the idea of standing out or rising above others in quality.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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