excite
Americanverb (used with object)
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excites,
present (3rd person singular)
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excited,
past participle, past
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exciting
present participle
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to arouse or stir up the emotions or feelings of.
to excite a person to anger; actions that excited his father's wrath.
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to arouse or stir up (emotions or feelings).
to excite jealousy or hatred.
- Synonyms:
- evoke
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to cause; awaken.
to excite interest or curiosity.
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to stir to action; provoke or stir up.
to excite a dog by baiting him.
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Physiology. to stimulate.
to excite a nerve.
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Electricity. to supply with electricity for producing electric activity or a magnetic field.
to excite a dynamo.
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Physics. to raise (an atom, molecule, etc.) to an excited state.
verb
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to arouse (a person) to strong feeling, esp to pleasurable anticipation or nervous agitation
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to arouse or elicit (an emotion, response, etc); evoke
her answers excited curiosity
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to cause or bring about; stir up
to excite a rebellion
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to arouse sexually
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physiol to cause a response in or increase the activity of (an organ, tissue, or part); stimulate
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to raise (an atom, molecule, electron, nucleus, etc) from the ground state to a higher energy level
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to supply electricity to (the coils of a generator or motor) in order to create a magnetic field
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to supply a signal to a stage of an active electronic circuit
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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excitesimple
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excitessimple
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have excitedperfect
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has excitedperfect
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am excitingprogressive
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are excitingprogressive
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is excitingprogressive
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have been excitingperfect progressive
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has been excitingperfect progressive
Past
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excitedsimple
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had excitedperfect
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was excitingprogressive
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were excitingprogressive
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had been excitingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of excite
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Latin excitāre, from ex- ex- 1 + citāre “to move repeatedly, set in motion, summon” (from ciēre “to arouse, cause to go, move”)
Explanation
To excite is to stimulate, animate, or energize. The return of your favorite TV show might excite you, and winning millions of dollars in the lottery will definitely excite you. While a new book by a beloved author excites one person, and an extra scoop of ice cream excites another, it might take something like a free trip to Hawaii to excite you. In quantum mechanics, the word excite takes on a more scientific meaning: to raise something, like an atom or an electron, to a higher level of energy. The Latin root of excite is excitare, "rouse, call out, or summon forth."
Vocabulary lists containing excite
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:
"Stories about corporate intrigue, money and power have found a home on TV. They lack the cinematic qualities that excite big screen audiences, like emotion, spectacle and fantasy," Gross said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
They demonstrated for the first time that laser beams could excite thorium nuclei.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
“The pace of hiring isn’t going to excite anyone — and that’s even more the case for those looking for work,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026
“I want to keep doing fun things. I want to keep being challenged. … I don’t really know where I’m going, but something will excite me, and I’d be like, ‘OK, what the hell?’
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
The secretary of war, Henry Knox, also followed the public feuding, and wrote: “The different opinions of the treatment excite great inquietude—But Rush bears down all before him.”
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
When you think about someone eventually carrying on the “Survivor” legacy, is that something that excites you?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
And what excites him the most is how comfortable he feels with the very real differences between L.A. and New York.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
"I'm excited now because I'm not 'Lucy the footballer' anymore. It might be hard to come to terms with down the line, but at the moment, it just excites me."
From BBC ● May 7, 2026
"We found that activating this pathway excites the part of the spinal cord that relays touch and pain to the brain, causing touch to now be perceived as pain as well," said Ball.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 27, 2026
It excites him to hear himself referred to that way.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
"Hopefully we come out on top. The combinations are really starting to come together now, so we're just excited and we're all ready to go."
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
“The risk is: We’re excited, it doesn’t lift productivity immediately. We’re disappointed, we pull out. And then it becomes our problem.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
"I'm excited long-time problems are now solved, but on the other hand, I have mixed feelings, because AI seems to have solved these difficult problems so easily," he said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
“We are incredibly excited, and we actually think people are gonna come from all over the world to see this thing,” Rudolph told The Times in June.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
It might as well be written in all caps, flashing at me in neon, excited emojis everywhere, it’s so loud in my face.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
“I discovered almost immediately that Nashville was even more fun and exciting than I could have dreamed.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
"Being lucky enough to play in a World Cup, in Port Moresby, in front of my family is really exciting."
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
“This is an exciting moment for both companies, where we’re finding ways to work together that are productive,” Meta’s AI chief, Alexandr Wang, said in an interview.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
"For us, the exciting step was to encode the magnetic flux in a gauge field that was itself dynamical," says Dr. Saner.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026
Nim felt excited and brave and a tiny bit afraid, but the second chapter of Mountain Madness was even more exciting than the first, and she thought about the hero till she went to sleep.
From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr
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