excerpt
Americannoun
-
excerpts
plural
verb (used with object)
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excerpts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
excerpted,
past participle, past
-
excerpting
present participle
-
to take or select (a passage) from a book, film, or the like; extract.
-
to take or select passages from (a book, film, or the like); abridge by choosing representative sections.
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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excerptsimple
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excerptssimple
-
have excerptedperfect
-
has excerptedperfect
-
am excerptingprogressive
-
are excerptingprogressive
-
is excerptingprogressive
-
have been excerptingperfect progressive
-
has been excerptingperfect progressive
Past
-
excerptedsimple
-
had excerptedperfect
-
was excerptingprogressive
-
were excerptingprogressive
-
had been excerptingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of excerpt
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Latin excerptus “picked out,” past participle of excerpere “to pick out, pluck out,” from ex- ex- 1 + -cerpere, combining form of carpere “to pluck”
Explanation
Instead of sharing all 147 lines of your favorite poem in class, you might want to read an excerpt, that is, just a part of the verses, so no one dozes off. Excerpt sounds a lot like "except" with an added "r," and it came into English in the 16th century from a Latin word meaning "plucked out." When the word is used as a verb, excerpt means to take a portion out, usually from a play, book, article, song, or other written work. And the part that is taken out also is called an excerpt, but it is a noun, that is, a thing. An excerpt is something you excerpt, or pluck out, from a larger piece.
Vocabulary lists containing excerpt
Power Prefix: ex-
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Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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STAAR Grade 8 Reading: The Language of the Test, 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:
The remarks came in a second excerpt released by ITV from the forthcoming documentary Dear Henry: Our Fight For Justice.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
In an excerpt published in the Wall Street Journal, he wrote that he’s learned “to love all parts of our Christian communion,” including those “who voted for me and those who didn’t.”
From Salon ● Oct. 21, 2026
Here a condensed and edited excerpt of my conversation with Sodipo:
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Pangram is considered one of the most reliable and testing by AFP on an excerpt of "It Was Either That or Die" indicated a 100-percent probability that Orelien had used AI to produce it.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
Identify the type of cadence in each excerpt.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
But excerpts were widely broadcast on local news channels and became fodder in the final pre-election debate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026
He arrived in the early 1990s when the New Yorker picked him from the slush pile and began serializing excerpts of what would become “The End of Vandalism.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
AFP ran excerpts through other AI detection tools and came up with a variety of results -- from it being "very likely" to have been written by a human to "100 percent" AI generated.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
The video, made in collaboration with faceless director Lauzza, features buildings shuffling on beat and other excerpts of British culture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026
Then the orchestra played excerpts from Dvorak's New World Symphony and I kept hearing "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" resounding through its dominant theme—my mother's and grandfather's favorite spiritual.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
The coming-of-age stories of four women the Times evacuated are chronicled in the forthcoming book “The Last Free Women,” excerpted below.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
A portion of their conversation, edited and condensed for clarity, has been excerpted below.
From Slate ● May 12, 2026
Prokofiev’s Shakespeare-inspired music is excerpted and heard on a recording, sometimes harshly produced on the hall’s reverberant sound system.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026
Raman’s campaign produced a video ad that heavily excerpted Bass’ remarks endorsing her at a Sherman Oaks get-out-the-vote rally.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2026
Consider the “virtually” in the letter of recommendation excerpted above.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Cowley worked his magic again in launching Jack Kerouac’s career, spending years talking up and excerpting “On the Road” in magazines before publishing the 1957 Beat touchstone with Viking to immediate acclaim.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
They also build on something search engines have already been doing, excerpting the most essential parts of existing content to save you a click.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 15, 2023
Its formula is to hire two or three reporters per city and fill out newsletters by excerpting stories from existing local outlets.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2022
This excerpting has a precedent in Cunningham practice.
From New York Times ● Dec. 11, 2019
Nor in the way of Spiritual Portraiture does there, after so much writing and excerpting, anything of importance remain for me to say.
From Life of John Sterling by Thomas Carlyle
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