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PlainSpell

exact

/ɪɡˈzækt/adjective, verb, adverb

exact is spelled E-X-A-C-T. The wrong spelling people search most is excact: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 141 of all searches for the word. Exact is an adjective meaning “Precisely agreeing with a standard, a fact, or the truth; perfectly conforming; neither exceeding nor falling…”.

How many letters and syllables are in exact?

Letters5: E-X-A-C-T
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing32 times per million words; the 2,941st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, excact, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell exact?

Exact is spelled E-X-A-C-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 141 of the searches for exact in either form.

exactthe right spelling2,790 searches a month
excactan extra c20 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is exact?

Exact appears 32 times per million words in written English, the 2,941st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce exact?

  • /ɪɡˈzækt/
  • /ɛɡ-/

Exact has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-exact.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of exact

  • exacter comparative
  • more exact comparative
  • exactest superlative
  • most exact superlative
  • exacts present, singular, he/she/it
  • exacting participle, present
  • exacted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does exact mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Precisely agreeing with a standard, a fact, or the truth; perfectly conforming; neither exceeding nor falling short in any respect.

    The clock keeps exact time.

  2. 2

    Habitually careful to agree with a standard, a rule, or a promise; accurate; methodical; punctual.

    a man exact in observing an appointment

  3. 3

    Precisely or definitely conceived or stated; strict.

  4. 4

    Such that the kernel of each morphism is the image of the preceding one.

  5. 5

    Such that it preserves short exact sequences.

verb

  1. 1

    To demand and enforce the payment or performance of, sometimes in a forcible or imperious way.

    to exact tribute, fees, or obedience from someone

  2. 2

    To make desirable or necessary.

  3. 3

    To inflict; to forcibly obtain or produce; to visit.

    to exact revenge on someone

adverb

  1. 1

    exactly

    She's wearing the exact same sweater as I am!

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Exact in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchexact, précis (precisely agreeing), exiger (To demand and enforce)
Germanexakt, genau (precisely agreeing), fordern, abverlangen, eintreiben (To demand and enforce), erzwingen (To forcibly obtain or produce)
Portugueseexato (precisely agreeing), exigir (To demand and enforce), obter (To forcibly obtain or produce), rigoroso (habitually careful), requerer (To make desirable or necessary)
Spanishexacto (precisely agreeing), exigir, enforzar, exaccionar, precisar, empeñar (To demand and enforce)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does exact come from?

From Latin exāctus (the verb via Middle English exact), perfect passive participle of exigō (“demand, claim as due; measure by a standard, weigh, test”), from ex (“out”) + agō (“drive”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after exact