Which to use
“Accept” is the verb meaning to receive or agree to. “Except” means excluding or leaving out. You accept a gift; everyone came except Sam.
- #1,473
- “accept” frequency rank
- #1,017
- “except” frequency rank
- 99
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | accept | except |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To receive, especially with a consent, with favour, or with approval. | To exclude; to specify as being an exception. |
Where the eye mixes accept and except
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. accept (/əkˈsɛpt/) and except (/ɪkˈsɛpt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 99, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
accept is recorded at frequency rank #1,473, classified as averb, pronounced /əkˈsɛpt/. except is at rank #1,017, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɪkˈsɛpt/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 99, this pair ranks #529,885 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of accept vs except
Shared letters: cept. Private to "accept": a. Private to "except": x.
"accept" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "except" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC