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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

except.

To exclude; to specify as being an exception.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɪkˈsɛpt/Received-Pronunciation/ɛkˈsɛpt/Received-Pronunciation/ɪkˈsɛpt/General-American/ɛkˈsɛpt/General-American, sometimes
  1. To exclude; to specify as being an exception.

    transitive
    I find most people annoying — present company excepted, of course!
  2. To take exception, to object (to or against).

    intransitive
    to except to a witness or his testimony
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle French excepter, from Latin exceptus.

prep/ɪkˈsɛpt/Received-Pronunciation/ɛkˈsɛpt/Received-Pronunciation/ɪkˈsɛpt/General-American/ɛkˈsɛpt/General-American, sometimes
  1. Used to introduce an exception or qualification to something previously stated.

    There was nothing in the cupboard except a tin of beans.
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle French excepter, from Latin exceptus.

conj/ɪkˈsɛpt/Received-Pronunciation/ɛkˈsɛpt/Received-Pronunciation/ɪkˈsɛpt/General-American/ɛkˈsɛpt/General-American, sometimes
  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.
    I never made fun of her except teasingly.
  2. Loosely, used to introduce a contrastive statement explaining why something wasn't successful, didn't happen, etc.

    informal
    They fired tear gas at us, except the wind was blowing the wrong way.
    I almost walked out, except I remembered the promise I had made.
  3. Unless; used to introduce a hypothetical case in which an exception may exist.

    archaic
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle French excepter, from Latin exceptus.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.