excerpt
/ˈɛɡzɜː(p)t/noun, verb
excerpt is spelled E-X-C-E-R-P-T. The wrong spelling people search most is exerpt: about 470 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Excerpt is a noun meaning “A clip, snippet, passage or extract from a larger work such as a news article, a film, or a literary…”. The plural of excerpt is excerpts.
How many letters and syllables are in excerpt?
| Letters | 7: E-X-C-E-R-P-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.2 times per million words; the 14,731st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, exerpt, about 470 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 excerpt?
Excerpt is spelled E-X-C-E-R-P-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for excerpt in either form.
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 excerpt?
Excerpt appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,731st 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 excerpt?
- UK /ˈɛɡzɜː(p)t/
- UK /ɛɡˈzɜː(p)t/
- UK /ɛkˈsɜː(p)t/
Excerpt 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-excerpt.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of excerpt
- excerpts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- excerpting participle, present
- excerpted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does excerpt mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A clip, snippet, passage or extract from a larger work such as a news article, a film, or a literary composition.
verb
- 1
To select or copy sample material (excerpts) from a work.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Excerpt in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | extrait, passage , extraire |
| German | Auszug, Exzerpt , exzerpieren |
| Portuguese | trecho, passagem, excerto |
| Spanish | excerpta, excerta |
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 excerpt come from?
From Latin excerptus, past participle of excerpere (“to pick out”), from ex (“out”) + carpere (“to pick, pluck”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).