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PlainSpell

excite

ex·cite/ɪkˈsaɪt/verb

excite is spelled E-X-C-I-T-E: 6 letters and 2 syllables (ex·cite). It appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 19,825th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, excite means “To stir the emotions of; to cause to feel excitement” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in excite?

Letters6: E-X-C-I-T-E
Syllables2: ex·cite
In writing1.9 times per million words; the 19,825th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is excite?

Excite appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 19,825th 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 excite?

  • /ɪkˈsaɪt/

Excite has 2 syllables, split ex·cite in writing.

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

Forms of excite

  • excites present, singular, he/she/it
  • exciting participle, present
  • excited participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

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

What does excite mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To stir the emotions of; to cause to feel excitement.

    The fireworks which opened the festivities excited anyone present.

  2. 2

    To arouse or bring out (e.g. feelings); to stimulate.

    Favoritism tends to excite jealousy in the ones not being favored.

  3. 3

    To cause an electron to move to a higher than normal state; to promote an electron to an outer level.

    By applying electric potential to the neon atoms, the electrons become excited, then emit a photon when returning to normal.

  4. 4

    To energize (an electromagnet); to produce a magnetic field in.

    to excite a dynamo

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

Excite in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchexciter (to stir the emotions of)
Germanerregen (to stir the emotions of), anregen (to arouse or bring out (e.g. feelings); to…)
Portugueseanimar, empolgar, comover (to stir the emotions of), provocar (to arouse or bring out (e.g. feelings); to…)
Spanishemocionar (to stir the emotions of), estimular (to arouse or bring out (e.g. feelings); to…), excitar (to cause an electron to move to a higher than…)

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 excite come from?

From Middle English exciten, from Old French exciter, from Latin excitō (“to call out, call forth, arouse, wake up, stimulate”), frequentative of excieō (“to call out, arouse, excite”), from ex (“out”) + cieō (“to call, summon”). See cite and compare to accite, concite, incite.

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

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