exclude
Americanverb (used with object)
-
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
-
excludernoun
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preexcludeverb (used with object)
-
excludableadjective
-
exclusoryadjective
-
unexcludedadjective
-
unexcludingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
excludesimple
-
excludessimple
-
have excludedperfect
-
has excludedperfect
-
am excludingprogressive
-
are excludingprogressive
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is excludingprogressive
-
have been excludingperfect progressive
-
has been excludingperfect progressive
Past
-
excludedsimple
-
had excludedperfect
-
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:
They narrowly voted to exclude emideltide, which has been considered for insomnia, narcolepsy and opioid withdrawal, with numerous other marketing claims including stress, pain and cancer.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
The league’s collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” but does not specifically exclude transgender women.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
Measures of core inflation, which exclude volatile food and energy prices, have been stubborn too, suggesting that some of the inflation rebound springs from deeper economic trends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
The expected announcement from Mahmood comes less than a week after a call from grooming gang survivors to exclude sex offenders from early release.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
The boys exclude us too, but their exclusion is active, they make a point of it.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
On an adjusted basis, which excludes one-off costs and exceptional items, earnings came to $2.51 a share.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
"Net bookings", the company's preferred revenue yardstick which excludes some deferred sales, was down slightly less in April-June, falling nine percent to 256 million euros.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Growth in regular earnings - which excludes bonuses - remained unchanged, rising at an annual pace of 3.4% in the March to May period.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Its “Robinhood Investor Index” doesn’t faithfully break down their results, and it excludes options trading.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
The clay hypothesis hardly excludes life on Mars, but it certainly carries us far enough to say that there is no compelling evidence for microbiology on Mars.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
If Alphabet were excluded from second-quarter earnings figures overall, the S&P 500’s blended earnings growth rate — which combines actual results and expected results — would fall to 25.9%, from 37.9%, according to the report.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 26, 2026
The analysis looks at candidates who have not held federal office before, meaning incumbents were excluded.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026
Children who already had high blood pressure or lacked dietary information at the beginning of the study were excluded from the analysis.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026
Judges at Manhattan's second circuit of appeals sent the previously dismissed cases back to a lower court for further proceedings, after ruling that a district judge had improperly excluded expert witness testimony.
From Barron's ● Jul. 13, 2026
So anyone with depth of thought is almost automatically excluded from the main high school social structure.
From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz
Brownstein: I don’t like the idea of excluding unvaccinated kids from my practice.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
After expenses and excluding any sales charges, the Calamos Timpani Small Cap Growth Mutual Fund has ranked fourth for one-year total return among the full group of 93 peer funds.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
Sales rose by in most regions on a comparable basis, including by six percent in Asia excluding Japan and four percent in the United States.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
China deliveries fell 19%, while deliveries in North America, excluding Mexico, were 17% lower on year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Weighing the half-pounds of flour, excluding the scoop, and depositing them dust-free into the thin paper sacks held a simple kind of adventure for me.
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
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.
