exclude
Americanverb (used with object)
-
excludes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
excluded,
past participle, past
-
excluding
present participle
-
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
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excludernoun
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preexcludeverb (used with object)
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excludableadjective
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exclusoryadjective
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unexcludedadjective
-
unexcludingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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excludesimple
-
excludessimple
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have excludedperfect
-
has excludedperfect
-
am excludingprogressive
-
are excludingprogressive
-
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:
The commercial stockpiles, which exclude oil held in the U.S.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 16, 2026
Downing Street had earlier warned it would not be possible to exclude "one or two offenders" convicted of manslaughter from early release.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
They typically exclude delinquencies from their calculations once they are deemed uncollectible, somewhere between 120 and 180 days past due.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
"There has never been a discussion or decision by this court to exclude the public for these proceedings," the judge said, attacking Mangione-backers for "reckless mischaracterization."
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
During the last week of January the locks on the Intracoastal Waterway were closed to exclude the toxic waters from Matagorda Bay and divert them into the Gulf of Mexico.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
The California tax incentive excludes above-the-line costs and has a per-project cap, whereas New Jersey’s incentive includes above-the-line costs and doesn’t have a per-project cap.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
If you’re above the median, you’re being compared against a group that excludes tens of millions of households with zero saved.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 2.6% on year in July and rose 0.4% on month.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Core PCE inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy, fell to a 12-month rate of 3.3% in June from 3.4% in May.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
It thus systematically excludes from consideration the very feature which makes scientific arguments distinctive: their appeal to superior evidence.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Other evidence about mushroom images on a memory card in Patterson's home was wrongly excluded, the lawyer said in an appeal submission in November last year.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
A QCD you make in November is still excluded from your income even if you took your RMD back in March.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
Last quarter, Nvidia reported $58.3 billion of net income and pointed analysts to a lower adjusted number of $45.5 billion that excluded unrealized investment gains.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Organisations representing victims of crime are concerned that the sex offenders and domestic abusers won't be excluded from the proposed changes.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
By merest chance the most dangerous creatures had been excluded.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
But its CEO told investors that, “even when excluding this benefit, our gross-margin performance was impressive by any historical comparison.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Indeed, the three sides with the best xG difference finished in the top three in the same order, while - excluding Sunderland - the five sides with the worst made up the bottom five.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Eurovision Song Contest organisers announced rule changes Wednesday excluding any country in an armed conflict from hosting the competition and increasing the mininum age of competitors.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
In June, passenger demand fell 1.7% globally, or 0.6% excluding the Middle East, according to the International Air Transport Association, although Nastro said it’s difficult to draw inferences about U.S. trends from global data.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
Many participles have turned into prepositions, such as according, allowing, barring, concerning, considering, excepting, excluding, failing, following, given, granted, including, owing, regarding, and respecting, and they don’t need subjects at all.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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.
