Correct spelling, explanation: the word excellence originates from Old French excellence, from Latin excellentia (meaning superiority, excellence, from excellentem (nominative excellens, meaning towering, distinguished, superior). As you can see, this noun must be spelled with the double -l letter, because the etymology indicates that. Therefore, the only correct version is excellence, not excelence.

Definition of excellence:
noun, the quality of being outstanding or extremely good
His excellence in baseball earned him a scholarship.
The school rewarded her with a prize for excellence in her studies.

Collocations with excellence:
Some most commonly used collocations include: artistic excellence and academic excellence.
My best friend always wanted to achieve artistic excellence.
The school has had a history of promoting academic excellence.

Incorrect spelling, explanation: excelence is a non-existent word because this version lacks one important element – the additional -l letter. When spelling the noun excellence pay attention to the etymology. It originates from Latin excellentia and Old French excellence. As you can see, there’s no reason to write it down without one important consonant.

Incorrect spelling

Incorrect spelling

Incorrect spelling