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PlainSpell

except

/ɪkˈsɛpt/verb, preposition, conjunction

except is spelled E-X-C-E-P-T. The wrong spelling people search most is exept: about 230 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 14 of all searches for the word. Except is a verb meaning “To exclude; to specify as being an exception”.

How many letters and syllables are in except?

Letters6: E-X-C-E-P-T
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing105 times per million words; the 1,021st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched2; the most searched, exept, about 230 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Pairs people search
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell except?

Except is spelled E-X-C-E-P-T. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 11 of the searches for except in either form.

exceptthe right spelling3,040 searches a month
exepta missing c230 searches a month
execptc and e swapped80 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 except?

Except appears 105 times per million words in written English, the 1,021st 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 except?

  • UK /ɪkˈsɛpt/
  • UK /ɛkˈsɛpt/
  • US /ɪkˈsɛpt/

Except 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-uk-except.ogg, En-us-except.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with except

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

accept vs except6,600 G

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with except?

6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as except from its last stressed vowel (/ɛpt/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: expect.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of except

  • excepts present, singular, he/she/it
  • excepting participle, present
  • excepted participle, past

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

What does except mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To exclude; to specify as being an exception.

    I find most people annoying – present company excepted, of course!

  2. 2

    To take exception, to object (to or against).

    to except to a witness or his testimony

preposition

  1. 1

    Used to introduce an exception or qualification to something previously stated.

    There was nothing in the cupboard except a tin of beans.

conjunction

  1. 1

    Used to introduce a clause, phrase, verb infinitive, adverb or other non-noun complement forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated.

    You look a bit like my sister, except (that) she has longer hair.

  2. 2

    informalLoosely, used to introduce a contrastive statement explaining why something wasn't successful, didn't happen, etc.

    They fired tear gas at us, except the wind was blowing the wrong way.

  3. 3

    archaicUnless; used to introduce a hypothetical case in which an exception may exist.

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

Except in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfaire une exception pour, excepter (to exclude), objecter, protester, s'élever contre (to take exception, to object to), excepté (introducing a noun or noun phrase forming an…)
Germanausnehmen, ausklammern, ausschließen (to exclude), widersprechen (to take exception, to object to), außer, bis auf (introducing a noun or noun phrase forming an…)
Portugueseexcepcionar (to exclude), objetar (to take exception, to object to), exceto, menos, fora, salvo (introducing a noun or noun phrase forming an…)
Spanishexceptuar, excepcionar (to exclude), excepto, salvo, exceptuando, menos (introducing a noun or noun phrase forming an…)

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 except come from?

Borrowed from Middle French excepter, from Latin exceptus.

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

What to look up after except