Which to use
“excellence” is a noun and “excellent” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,230
- “excellence” frequency rank
- #1,865
- “excellent” frequency rank
- 6095
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excellence | excellent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Degré élevé de qualité. | Qui excelle ; qui possède toutes les qualités requises, très bon. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set excellence and excellent apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: excellence is \ɛk.se.lɑ̃s\ while excellent is \ɛk.sɛ.lɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6095, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
excellence is recorded at frequency rank #4,230, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛk.se.lɑ̃s\. excellent is at rank #1,865, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛk.sɛ.lɑ̃\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 6095, this pair ranks #427,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of excellence vs excellent
Shared letters: celnx. Private to "excellence": -. Private to "excellent": t.
"excellence" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCV · "excellent" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- excellence ← ecxellence · exccellence · excelelnce · excelence · excellecne · excellencce · excellenec · excellennce
- excellent ← ecxellent · exccellent · excelelnt · excelent · excellennt · excellentt · excelletn · excellnet
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "excellence" and "excellent" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "excellence" or "excellent"?
Remembering excellence vs excellent
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “excellence”; for an adjective, it's “excellent”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “excellence” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable