Which to use
“exceeding” is a verb and “excluding” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,767
- “exceeding” frequency rank
- #8,034
- “excluding” frequency rank
- 20801
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | exceeding | excluding |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of exceed | to the exclusion of; not including |
Letter map: exceeding vs excluding
Shared letters muted; letters that set exceeding and excluding apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.
Role in the sentence - exceeding and excluding
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: exceeding is averb and excludingapreposition. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20801, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
exceeding is recorded at frequency rank #12,767, classified as averb, pronounced /ɪkˈsiːdɪŋ/. excluding is at rank #8,034, tagged as aprep.
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 20801, this pair ranks #428,556 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of exceeding vs excluding
Shared letters: cdeginx. Private to "exceeding": -. Private to "excluding": lu.
"exceeding" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCVCC · "excluding" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "exceeding" for "excluding" ever safe?
Which is more common, "exceeding" or "excluding"?
What to do next
You've compared "exceeding" and "excluding". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "exceeding" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "excluding" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #428,556 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "exceeding" and "excluding" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excluding vs excusing". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #428,556 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.