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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

exception.

The act of excepting or excluding; exclusion; restriction by taking out something which would otherwise be included, as in a class, statement, rule.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/əkˈsɛpʃən//ɪkˈsɛpʃən/

  1. The act of excepting or excluding; exclusion; restriction by taking out something which would otherwise be included, as in a class, statement, rule.

    countable · uncountable
    the exception of a rule

  2. That which is excluded from others; a person, thing, or case, specified as distinct, or not included.

    countable · uncountable
    That rule is usually true, but there are a few exceptions.

  3. An objection, on legal grounds; also, as in conveyancing, a clause by which the grantor excepts or reserves something before the right is transferred.

    countable · uncountable

  4. An objection; cavil; dissent; disapprobation; offense; cause of offense.

    countable · uncountable

  5. An interruption in normal processing, typically caused by an error condition, that can be raised (“thrown”) by one part of the program and handled (“caught”) by another part.

    countable · uncountable
    null pointer exception
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰ Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs Proto-Italic *eks Latin ex Latin ex- substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *kapyéti Proto-Italic *kapjō Archaic Latin kapiō Latin capiō Latin excipiō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin exceptiōder. Old French excepcion Anglo-Norman excepciounbor. Middle English exception English exception From Middle English exception, excepcioun, from Anglo-Norman excepcioun, from Old French excepcion, from Latin exceptiō. Equivalent to except + -ion.

verb/əkˈsɛpʃən//ɪkˈsɛpʃən/

  1. To throw an exception.

    informal · intransitive · rare
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰ Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs Proto-Italic *eks Latin ex Latin ex- substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *kapyéti Proto-Italic *kapjō Archaic Latin kapiō Latin capiō Latin excipiō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin exceptiōder. Old French excepcion Anglo-Norman excepciounbor. Middle English exception English exception From Middle English exception, excepcioun, from Anglo-Norman excepcioun, from Old French excepcion, from Latin exceptiō. Equivalent to except + -ion.

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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.