exclude
Americanverb (used with object)
-
excludes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
excluded,
past participle, past
-
excluding
present participle
-
to shut or keep out; prevent the entrance of.
- Antonyms:
- include
-
to shut out from consideration, privilege, etc..
Employees and their relatives were excluded from participation in the contest.
-
to expel and keep out; thrust out; eject.
He was excluded from the club for infractions of the rules.
- Synonyms:
- reject
verb
-
to keep out; prevent from entering
-
to reject or not consider; leave out
-
to expel forcibly; eject
-
to debar from school, either temporarily or permanently, as a form of punishment
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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excludernoun
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preexcludeverb (used with object)
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excludableadjective
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exclusoryadjective
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unexcludedadjective
-
unexcludingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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excludesimple
-
excludessimple
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have excludedperfect
-
has excludedperfect
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am excludingprogressive
-
are excludingprogressive
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is excludingprogressive
-
have been excludingperfect progressive
-
has been excludingperfect progressive
Past
-
excludedsimple
-
had excludedperfect
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was excludingprogressive
-
were excludingprogressive
-
had been excludingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of exclude
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin exclūdere “to shut out, cut off,” from ex- ex- 1 + -clūdere, combining form of claudere “to shut, close”
Compare meaning
How does exclude compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Exclude means to leave out — like when the cool kids won't let you in on their game of four-square or the pizza guy leaves your neighborhood out from his delivery zone. Exclude comes to us from the Latin word excludere, which means "to shut." So essentially, when you exclude someone you slam the door in their face one way or another: You won't let them into the party, you leave them off the invite list, or refuse to include them in the conversation once they arrive. Needless to say, excluding others is not very nice.
Vocabulary lists containing exclude
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Case Closed: Clud, Clus
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UCPS 6th Grade Roots List #1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A US appeals court upheld on Friday the Pentagon's decision to exclude Anthropic from its supply chain, a decision taken when the AI startup refused to remove certain safeguards on its Claude model.
From Barron's ● Sep. 25, 2026
If this were your friend’s primary residence, she could exclude up to $250,000 in capital gains from her taxable income.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
It's best to exclude penalties as refereeing decisions and defensive clumsiness give a false impression of how good teams actually are at attacking and defending, especially at this early stage.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
Unless iPhone users exclude themselves from the settlement class, they won’t be able to sue Apple or join any lawsuit against the company based on the claims in the case.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
“Once you have the power to exclude, you have what people have been seeking in old money.”
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
The final version excludes resale marketplaces from the definition of a speculative ticket seller.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
Core retail sales, which excludes gas stations and vehicle and parts dealers, were 0.7% lower for the month.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
According to the report, adjusted operating income excludes stock-based compensation, which is not unusual for technology companies.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
And he asked Mastro whether he concedes that rent-stabilized apartment owners’ net operating income—a measure of landlord profits that excludes their debt payments—increased.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
It thus systematically excludes from consideration the very feature which makes scientific arguments distinctive: their appeal to superior evidence.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The Higgs boson was discovered in 2012 only after decades of experiments gradually excluded one energy region after another.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
I know the experiences of deaf women being excluded, being deprived of communication, being deprived of help, being deprived of access, being deprived of so many things.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
Contrary to police claims, the DNA was not a conclusive match for Oxford and Walters; it indicated only that they could not be excluded as possible contributors.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
On the matter of the excluded events, Coe said the disciplines held at the Ultimate Championship were "not in tablets of stone".
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
People who organize a revolution usually take over the government and personal ambition cannot be excluded as a motive.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
It alleged that Mancini was paid more by City for his role as a consultant to Abu Dhabi club Al Jazira than he was getting from his role as City manager, excluding bonuses and incentives.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
But over roughly the same period, the S&P 500—hardly an exotic investment—rose by about 235%, excluding dividends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
That pattern suggested that the regions where the first solid objects, known as planetesimals, were forming were already favoring heat-formed chondrules while excluding much of the icy dust.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
Though that’s excluding “time-to-power” solutions, like off-grid power, which bypass grid-connection delays.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026
On January 24, 2008, Bunderson filed a motion to prohibit the prosecution from introducing diagrams of the crash site, excluding any diagram “prepared by Mr. Kaiserman, the only eyewitness.”
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
