excursus
/ɛkˈskɝsəs/
"excursus" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“excursus” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A fuller treatment (in a separate section) of a particular part of the text of a book, especially a classic.
Corpus desk
Index EN-excursus · excursus · English
excursus · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "E" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | excursus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɛkˈskɝsəs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “excursus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
excursus is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ɛkˈskɝsəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for excursus in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin excursus (“excursion”). Doublet of excurse. The correct English form is excursus, spelled E-X-C-U-R-S-U-S.
Definition
- 1A fuller treatment (in a separate section) of a particular part of the text of a book, especially a classic.
- 2A narrative digression, especially to discuss a particular issue.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how excursus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Here is what us scholars call an excursus. If you are an honest man the following page or two can be of no possible interest to you.
In his excursus on the Jewish people at the opening of the fifth book of his Histories [...], Tacitus was at a loss to uncover any deep cause for the war that broke out in 66.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin excursus (“excursion”). Doublet of excurse.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.