excise

¹ American  

[ek-sahyz, -sahys, ek-sahyz, ik-sahyz] / ˈɛk saɪz, -saɪs, ˈɛk saɪz, ɪkˈsaɪz /

noun

1. an internal tax or duty on certain commodities, as liquor or tobacco, levied on their manufacture, sale, or consumption within the country.

2. a tax levied for a license to carry on certain employments, pursue certain sports, etc.

3. British. the branch of the civil service that collects excise taxes.

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verb (used with object)

excised, excising

1. to impose an excise on.

excise ² American  

[ik-sahyz] / ɪkˈsaɪz /

verb (used with object)

excised, excising

1. to expunge, as a passage or sentence, from a text.

2. to cut out or off, as a tumor.

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excise ¹ British  

noun

1. Also called: excise tax.  a tax on goods, such as spirits, produced for the home market

2. a tax paid for a licence to carry out various trades, sports, etc

3. that section of the government service responsible for the collection of excise, now part of HMRC

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excise ² British  

/ ɪkˈsaɪz, ɪkˈsɪʒən /

verb

1. to delete (a passage, sentence, etc); expunge

2. to remove (an organ, structure, or part) surgically

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Other Word Forms

• excision
  noun
• excisable
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of excise¹

1485–95; apparently < Middle Dutch excijs, variant of accijs < Medieval Latin accīsa tax, literally, a cut, noun use of feminine past participle of Latin accīdere to cut into, equivalent to ac- ac- + cīd-, variant stem of caedere to cut + -ta feminine past participle suffix, with dt > s

Origin of excise²

First recorded in 1570–80; from Latin excīsus “cut out, hewn down,” past participle of excīdere “to excide ”

Explanation

An excise tax is a special tax levied on specific products sold within a country. To excise something can also mean to get rid of it. Say, wouldn't it be nice if they would excise the excise taxes? An excise tax is simply an extra tax put on various products. Perhaps the most common examples are the taxes levied on tobacco and liquor, often called "sin taxes" because drinking and smoking are considered vices. There is also an excise tax on gasoline. To cover the tax, the seller will usually raise the price of the item. Interestingly, the word excise (ek-SIZE) used as a verb means to remove something by cutting it out. Good luck with excising the excise taxes!

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

excise excised excising

They did that because they don’t face the same excise tax on those fees that they do on fares.

From Slate ● May 12, 2026

Michigan and Ohio drivers saw sharp price drops, while the Hoosier State “experienced even steeper relief after the state temporarily waived both its excise and use taxes on gasoline.”

From MarketWatch ● May 11, 2026

The Irish government has in recent months cut excise duty on diesel and petrol but the latest package of measures is aimed at hauliers, farmers, agricultural contractors and fishers.

From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2026

State‑run retailers have yet to raise pump prices, with the government instead cutting excise duties on fuel.

From Barron's ● Apr. 26, 2026

The catalyst for the change was the Whiskey Rebellion, a popular insurgency in four counties of western Pennsylvania protesting an excise tax on whiskey.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

When you start googling about the emoluments clause, the first thing that keeps coming up is “What ever happened to the emoluments clause,” as though it was excised from the Constitution.

From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026

The movie is more condensed than the novel; Hitchcock accepted that the film medium cannot access the inner thoughts of a human being, and so significant swaths of the book were excised.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

As for why some material was excised, the reasons vary.

From Salon ● Feb. 22, 2026

Calling her posts “abhorrent and unacceptable,” Lucasfilm excised her character from “The Mandalorian” and canceled an upcoming spinoff in which she was to star.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2025

Since most letters were written on both sides of a single piece of paper, the material on the other side would also be excised.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

They’re dead-set on excising any shagginess that doesn’t fit their hidebound worldview, attacking textbooks and museums that dare to push beyond a straightforward explanation.

From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026

You will respect your stepdaughter’s position by excising her from the trust, while ensuring you don’t leave a lot of swag for your stepson to squander.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 20, 2025

In a fast-changing economy, businesses are automating some entry-level roles and excising middle layers of their org charts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2025

The approach helped trim the five-hour play to two hours and 45 minutes, excising the military and royal aspects to focus on the family dynamics.

From New York Times ● Jul. 26, 2023

In criticising the defects of our educational system, we have too long mistaken symptoms for causes, and believed that we were removing the latter when we were only palliating or at best excising the former.

From What Is and What Might Be A Study of Education in General and Elementary Education in Particular by Edmond Holmes

Related Words

• black out
• cross out
• cut out
• edit
• eradicate
• expunge
• exterminate
• stamp out