Which to use
“excepting” and “exciting” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,546
- “excepting” frequency rank
- #2,790
- “exciting” frequency rank
- 39336
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excepting | exciting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of except | present participle and gerund of excite |
Where the eye mixes excepting and exciting
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between excepting and exciting
A purely visual mix-up. excepting (/ɪkˈsɛptɪŋ/) and exciting (/ɪkˈsʌɪtɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39336, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
excepting is recorded at frequency rank #36,546, classified as averb, pronounced /ɪkˈsɛptɪŋ/. exciting is at rank #2,790, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɪkˈsʌɪtɪŋ/.
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 39336, this pair ranks #277,644 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of excepting vs exciting
Shared letters: cegintx. Private to "excepting": p. Private to "exciting": -.
"excepting" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC · "exciting" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "excepting" for "exciting" ever safe?
Which is more common, "excepting" or "exciting"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "excepting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "exciting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #277,644 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "excepting" and "exciting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eliciting vs exciting". 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 #277,644 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.