except
/ɪkˈsɛpt//ɪkˈsɛpt/
except verb: to exclude; to specify as being an exception.
Verb
except (third-person singular simple present excepts, present participle excepting, simple past and past participle excepted)
- To exclude; to specify as being an exception.
- I find most people annoying — present company excepted, of course!
- But this [ban on circumcision] must have been a provocation, as the emperor Antoninus Pius later acknowledged by excepting the Jews.2007, Glen Bowersock, “Provocateur”, in London Review of Books, 29:4, page 17
- To take exception, to object (to or against).
- to except to a witness or his testimony
- Except thou wilt except against my love.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
Preposition
except
- Used to introduce an exception or qualification to something previously stated.
- There was nothing in the cupboard except a tin of beans.
- Except that he is wearing polka-dot drawers, he is buck naked.1983, Paul T. Rogers, Saul's Book
- Synonyms:
- apart from, except for, outtake, with the exception of, apart, aside, aside from, bar, barring, besides
Conjunction
except
- 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.
- Loosely, used to introduce a contrastive statement explaining why something wasn't successful, didn't happen, etc.
- 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.
- Unless; used to introduce a hypothetical case in which an exception may exist.
- And they sayde: We have no moo but five loves and two fisshes, except we shulde goo and bye meate for all this people.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Luke
- If I ſay ſooth, I muſt report they were / As Cannons ouer-charg'd with double Cracks, / So they doubly redoubled ſtroakes vpon the Foe: / Except they meant to bathe in reeking Wounds, / Or memorize another Golgotha, / I cannot tell: but I am faint, / My Gaſhes cry for helpe.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
except meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu
except in Hindi
- Introducing a non-noun complement forming an exception or qualification
- सिवाय sivāy
except in Tamil
- introducing a noun or noun phrase forming an exception or qualification
- தவிர tavira
except in Marathi
- to exclude
- वगळणे vagaḷṇe
- introducing a noun or noun phrase forming an exception or qualification
- खेरीजकरून kherījakrūn
except in Telugu
- introducing a noun or noun phrase forming an exception or qualification
- తప్ప tappa, తక్క takka
More languagesFewer languages
- except in Malayalam
- ഒഴികെ oḻike
- except in Kannada
- ಹೊರತುಪಡಿಸಿ, ಹೊರತು ಪಡಿಸಿ
- except in Nepali
- बाहेक, बाहेकका
- except in Tagalog
- maliban ang, maliban sa, maliban
- except in Arabic
- اِسْتَثْنَى istaṯnā, إِلَّا ʔillā, بِاسْتِثْنَاء bi-stiṯnāʔ, عَدَا ʕadā
- except in Malay
- kecuali
- except in Indonesian
- kecuali
- except in Persian
- جز joz, بجز bejoz, مگر magar, باستثنای
- except in Thai
- ยกเว้น yók-wén
- except in Vietnamese
- ngoại trừ, trừ, trừ ra, phản đối
Examples of except in a sentence
- To survive, I did everything except steal.
- Come any time except between ten and twelve.
- Yea, but methinks I hear some man except at these words […]., vol.1, New York Review Books 2001, p.312
- The Athenians might fairly except against the practise of Democritus to be buried up in honey; as fearing to embezzle a great commodity of their Countrey1658, Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial, Penguin, published 2005, page 23:
- he was a great lover of music, and perhaps, had he lived in town, might have passed for a connoisseur; for he always excepted against the finest compositions of Mr Handel.1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
- Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:
Synonyms of except
11 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of except
| third-person singular present | excepts |
|---|---|
| present participle | excepting |
| past participle | excepted |
| past | excepted |
| alternative form (archaic, rare) | excepte |
Origin of except
Borrowed from Middle French excepter, from Latin exceptus.
Words formed from except
- except for
- except for opinion
- exceptive
- exceptless
Phrases with except
Words that rhyme with except
Questions about except
- What does except mean?
- Except means to exclude; to specify as being an exception.
- What is except in Hindi?
- Except in Hindi is सिवाय (sivāy). See Except meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use except in a sentence?
- To survive, I did everything except steal.
- What part of speech is except?
- Except can be a verb, a preposition or a conjunction.
- How do you pronounce except?
- Except is pronounced /ɪkˈsɛpt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of except?
- The past tense of except is excepted.
Words near except in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: except (page history and authors); except (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); except (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-except.ogg, en-us-except.ogg.
Cite this entry: “except.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/except. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.