noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A clip, snippet, passage or extract from a larger work such as a news article, a film, or a literary composition.
2. 2
   a passage selected from a larger work wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   To select or copy sample material (excerpts) from a work. transitive

   "out of which we have excerpted the following remarkable particulars"

2. 2
   take out of a literary work in order to cite or copy wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

castchoosechoose outcitationciteclip

Example

More examples

"The students have to analyze an excerpt from the book."

Etymology

From Latin excerptus, past participle of excerpere (“to pick out”), from ex (“out”) + carpere (“to pick, pluck”).

Related phrases

excerpt from police record

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