excerpt
Americannoun
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excerpts
plural
verb (used with object)
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excerpts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
excerpted,
past participle, past
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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
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have excerptedperfect
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has excerptedperfect
-
am excerptingprogressive
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are excerptingprogressive
-
is excerptingprogressive
-
have been excerptingperfect progressive
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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:
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
Here is an excerpt from his acceptance speech:
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
Sam, who now lives in Swansea, has recently been looking through his care files and shared an excerpt with the BBC.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
In an excerpt from the forthcoming book ‘The Last Free Women,’ the Rahim sisters mourn an era of expanded opportunity in Afghanistan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
One thing we had going for us was an excerpt from this book that ran in Rolling Stone in April 1999.
From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz
Unedited excerpts from the surveys, in which candidates lay out detailed goals and policy analysis, can be found at the links below.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
But following allegations started by an anonymous X account, the 38-year-old Haitian-Canadian stands accused of using artificial intelligence to write his novel based on analysis of excerpts by AI-detection websites such as Pangram.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
Here are edited excerpts from the conversation with Charles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
The Daily Mirror splashes on a "war of words" and "Earl's astonishing claims" after excerpts were released.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Cars honked and shoved busily past, sending out fleeting excerpts of whatever hot new single was getting overplayed on the radio.
From "Shadowshaper" by Daniel José Older
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
In the climate science chapter, footnote 77 says “discussion of attribution research has been adapted, and, in some cases, excerpted from the authors’ prior publications on this topic.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
In excerpted quotes from Schwank’s prepared testimony shared with The Times, he calls the training program “deficient, defective and broken.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2026
A portion of their conversation is excerpted below, edited and condensed for clarity.
From Slate ● Dec. 8, 2025
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
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
Even at 82, Steinem says the experience taught her something: “It made me understand the dangers of excerpting a few words.”
From Time ● May 5, 2016
With this in mind he read countless authors of different ages and countries, a total of around 50,000 epigrams, from most of which nothing at all was worth excerpting.
From An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams by J. V. (James Vincent) Cunningham
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.
