Word.ws English Dictionary

excursus

UK/ɛkˈskɜːsəs/US/ɛkˈskɝsəs/

excursus noun: a fuller treatment (in a separate section) of a particular part of the text of a book, especially a classic.

Noun

excursus (plural excursuses or excursus)

  1. A fuller treatment (in a separate section) of a particular part of the text of a book, especially a classic.
  2. A narrative digression, especially to discuss a particular issue.
    • 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.1979, Kyril Bonfiglioli, After You with the Pistol, Penguin, published 2001, page 204
    • 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 66.2007, Glen Bowersock, “Provocateur”, in London Review of Books, 29:4, p. 16

excursus meaning in Tamil and Urdu

excursus in Tamil

விரிவிளக்கத் தனிக்குறிப்பு

excursus in Urdu

تفصیلی ضمیمہ

Examples of excursus in a sentence

  • Part III (Chapters 12 to 16) includes an excursus which leads us to the use of Esperanto outside the community of its speakers.2022, Sabine Fiedler, Cyril Robert Brosch, “On the structure of this book” (chapter 6), in Esperanto – Lingua Franca and Language...
  • The authors devote a fascinating excursus to the Western imagination’s preoccupation with serpents—from Eden to esoterica—and how this primed the ground for Kuṇḍalinī’s reception.2025 December 10, Massimo Introvigne, ““The Serpent’s Tale”: Kuṇḍalinī Without a Leash”, in Bitter Winter:

Forms of excursus

pluralexcursuses
pluralexcursus

Origin of excursus

Learned borrowing from Latin excursus (“excursion”). Doublet of excurse.

Words that rhyme with excursus

Questions about excursus

What does excursus mean?
Excursus means a fuller treatment (in a separate section) of a particular part of the text of a book, especially a classic.
What is excursus in Tamil?
Excursus in Tamil is விரிவிளக்கத் தனிக்குறிப்பு. See Excursus meaning in Tamil.
How do you use excursus in a sentence?
Part III (Chapters 12 to 16) includes an excursus which leads us to the use of Esperanto outside the community of its speakers.
What part of speech is excursus?
Excursus is a noun.
How do you pronounce excursus?
Excursus is pronounced /ɛkˈskɝsəs/ (US).
What is the plural of excursus?
The plural of excursus is excursuses.

Words near excursus in the dictionary

  1. excursions
  2. excursive
  3. excursively
  4. excursiveness
  5. excursory
  6. excursus
  7. excursuses
  8. excurved
  9. excusability
  10. excusable
  11. excusableness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: excursus (page history and authors); excursus (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); excursus (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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.

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Cite this entry: “excursus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/excursus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.