exceptional
ex·cep·tion·al/ɪkˈsɛpʃənəl/adjective, noun
exceptional is spelled E-X-C-E-P-T-I-O-N-A-L, 4 syllables: ex·cep·tion·al. The wrong spelling people search most is exeptional: about 50 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 70 of all searches for the word. Exceptional is an adjective meaning “Forming an exception; not ordinary; uncommon; rare”.
How many letters and syllables are in exceptional?
| Letters | 11: E-X-C-E-P-T-I-O-N-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: ex·cep·tion·al |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,565th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, exeptional, about 50 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell exceptional?
Exceptional is spelled E-X-C-E-P-T-I-O-N-A-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 70 of the searches for exceptional in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is exceptional?
Exceptional appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,565th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce exceptional?
- /ɪkˈsɛpʃənəl/
- [ɪ-]
- [ɛ-]
Exceptional has 4 syllables, split ex·cep·tion·al in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-exceptional.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of exceptional
- more exceptional comparative
- most exceptional superlative
- exceptionals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does exceptional mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Forming an exception; not ordinary; uncommon; rare.
What an exceptional meal!
- 2
Requiring special schooling for reasons of intellectual giftedness or physical or mental disability.
The origins of the conditions and disorders that exceptional learners have are not always well understood.
- 3
Better than the average; superior due to exception or rarity.
The quality of the beer was exceptional.
- 4
Corresponding to something of lower dimension under a birational correspondence.
an exceptional curve; an exceptional divisor
noun
- 1
An exception, or something having an exceptional value
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Exceptional in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense forming an exception:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | exceptionnel |
| German | außergewöhnlich |
| Portuguese | excepcional, excecional |
| Spanish | excepcional |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does exceptional come from?
From exception + -al.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).