Which to use
“except” is a verb and “excerpt” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,017
- “except” frequency rank
- #14,754
- “excerpt” frequency rank
- 15771
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | except | excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To exclude; to specify as being an exception. | A clip, snippet, passage or extract from a larger work such as a news article, a film, or a literary composition. |
Where the eye mixes except and excerpt
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: except is /ɪkˈsɛpt/ while excerpt is /ˈɛɡzɜː(p)t/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15771, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
except is recorded at frequency rank #1,017, classified as averb, pronounced /ɪkˈsɛpt/. excerpt is at rank #14,754, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛɡzɜː(p)t/.
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 15771, this pair ranks #461,905 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of except vs excerpt
Shared letters: ceptx. Private to "except": -. Private to "excerpt": r.
"except" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "excerpt" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCC