Exceed

//ɪkˈsiːd// verb

verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To be larger, greater than (something). transitive

    "The company's 2005 revenue exceeds that of 2004."

  2. 2
    be or do something to a greater degree wordnet
  3. 3
    To be better than (something). transitive

    "The quality of her essay has exceeded my expectations."

  4. 4
    be superior or better than some standard wordnet
  5. 5
    To go beyond (some limit); to surpass; to be longer than. transitive

    "Your password cannot exceed eight characters."

Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    be greater in scope or size than some standard wordnet
  2. 7
    To predominate. intransitive
  3. 8
    To go too far; to be excessive. intransitive, obsolete

    "And to speak impartially, old Men, from whom we should expect the greatest example of Wisdom, do most exceed in this point of folly […]."

Synonyms

All synonyms
topexceloutdooutdooutmatchoutperform

Example

More examples

"The length of the article is not to exceed 1000 words."

Etymology

From Middle English exceden, from Old French exceder, from Latin excēdō (“to go beyond”), from ex- (“out, forth”) with cēdō (“to go”); see cede and compare accede etc. Partly displaced native Old English ofersteppan, whence Modern English overstep.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.