excerpt

noun

ex·cerpt | \ ˈek-ˌsərpt

, ˈeg-ˌzərpt

Definition of excerpt

(Entry 1 of 2)

: a passage (as from a book or musical composition) selected, performed, or copied : extract

excerpt

verb

ex·cerpt | \ ek-ˈsərpt

, eg-ˈzərpt

, ˈek-ˌsərpt

, ˈeg-ˌzərpt

excerpted; excerpting; excerpts

Definition of excerpt (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

1 : to select (a passage) for quoting : extract

2 : to take or publish extracts from (something, such as a book)

Other Words from excerpt Synonyms Example Sentences Learn More about excerpt

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Examples of excerpt in a Sentence

Noun

Among the excerpts and Twitter feeds and author interviews … there was the actor Will Smith praising The Alchemist as one of his favorite books. — Gregory Cowles, New York Times Book Review, 18 Oct. 2009 When his [Thomas Jefferson's] wife Martha died in 1782, he wrapped a lock of her hair with a scrap of paper containing an excerpt from the couple's favorite novel, Laurence Sterne's comic masterpiece, Tristram Shandy, and stashed the token in his desk. — Walter Kim, Time, 5 July 2004 The exemplary figure here is Norman Mailer, whose 1959 Advertisements for Myself is the height of writerly chutzpah. The book, comprising excerpts from his journalism and fiction, descriptions of the agonies he went through to produce them and obsessive reviews of his reviewers, is so shameless it's admirable. — Judith Shulevitz, New York Times Book Review, 17 June 2001 … I also keep a pad by the side of my bed for writing down great thoughts at night without having to turn on the light. In the morning, these great thoughts sound like excerpts from the Dead Sea Scrolls. — Bill Cosby, Time Flies, (1987) 1988 She read an excerpt from the play. I've read only excerpts of Moby-Dick, never the whole book.

Verb

The fiction that the magazine does publish is too often excerpted from novels or imminently forthcoming collections, making the magazine seem more a flack for publishers than a site of editorial strength and vision. — Vince Passaro, Harper's, August 1999 How quickly does the Net move? Last Friday journalist Michael Colton posted an elaborate Web parody of the forthcoming magazine Talk, which is owned by Miramax and helmed by former New Yorker editor Tina Brown. Within hours, the site's URL had ricocheted about in countless e-mails, and the Drudge Report had excerpted the text. — Newsweek, 26 July 1999

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Hae's diary entries, excerpts of which were played in Serial, form a major part of the show and are used as a voiceover. — Emma Dibdin, Harper's BAZAAR, "How HBO's The Case Against Adnan Syed Picks Up Where Serial Left Off," 12 Feb. 2019 Scattered throughout are excerpts from the writings of both Josef and Anni. — Ann Landi, WSJ, "What to Give: Books on Design," 15 Nov. 2018 The following passage is an excerpt from One Heart at a Time, in which Delilah describes her heartbreak after her son's death. — Taysha Murtaugh, Country Living, "Radio Host Delilah Opens Up About Losing Her Teenage Son to Suicide In New Memoir," 22 Oct. 2018 The below, which originally ran on Glamour.com in 2017, is an excerpt from Murad's book The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State. — Nadia Murad, Glamour, "Nadia Murad Escaped Sexual Slavery at the Hands of ISIS. This Is Her Story.," 5 Oct. 2018 This is an excerpt of Linda Kay Klein's Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free, out September 4. — Good Housekeeping, "How the Purity Movement Made Women Giddy About Dating Jesus, and Ashamed to Masturbate," 27 Aug. 2018 The Washington Post published my account of this discovery last April, and excerpts of the tapes have been uploaded onto its website. — Jonathan Greenberg, Town & Country, "How to Get a Spot Among the Billionaires on the Forbes 400 List," 15 Jan. 2019 Here's an excerpt that has been largely overlooked. — Howard Kurtz, Fox News, "Trump attacks Woodward, but trashing his book may not work," 6 Sep. 2018 Here are excerpts from company responses and, in most cases, anonymous compiled employee quotes, listed in alphabetical order. — The Enquirer, Cincinnati.com, "Top Workplaces Cincinnati: Find the best 65 small-sized companies in our region," 7 June 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

The following feature is excerpted from TIME’s Queen Elizabeth II: The World’s Longest-Reigning Monarch, available at retailers and on Amazon. — Eliana Dockterman, Time, "Elizabeth Didn’t Expect to Be Queen. Here’s How It Happened," 1 June 2018 As excerpted by Marie Claire, Witherspoon received an invitation to attend a Los Angeles fundraiser hosted by the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William soon after their royal wedding had sent the world into a tizzy. — Devon Ivie, Glamour, "Reese Witherspoon Says She Fell Under Kate Middleton's 'Spell' When They First Met," 26 Sep. 2018 The following is excerpted from Masters of Modern Soccer: How the World’s Best Play the Twenty-First-Century Game. — Grant Wahl, SI.com, "Masters of Modern Soccer: Chicharito and the Art of Mexico's Synchronization," 3 May 2018 This article is excerpted from Hemingway's Boat, by Paul Hendrickson, to be published by Knopf in September 2011. — Paul Hendrickson, Town & Country, "The Muse of Kilimanjaro," 19 Dec. 2012 Many of the emails are excerpted and their full context isn’t clear. — Kirsten Grind, WSJ, "Facebook’s Zuckerberg at Center of Emails Released by U.K. Parliament," 5 Dec. 2018 Joanna revealed the touching story of her engagement to husband Chip in their book The Magnolia Story, which was excerpted on Cosmopolitan.com. — Jessica Leigh Mattern, Country Living, "This is Why Joanna Gaines Will Never Upgrade Her Engagement Ring," 18 June 2018 Article 11 aims to change that by giving news publishers more control over how technology platforms excerpt and link to their articles. — Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica, "An EU copyright bill could force YouTube-style filtering across the Web," 11 Sep. 2018 That’s what Tom Bower says in his new unauthorized biography of the Prince of Wales, Rebel Prince: The Power, Passion and Defiance of Prince Charles — pages of which were excerpted in The Daily Mail on Saturday. — Dave Quinn, PEOPLE.com, "Prince Charles Felt Threatened by Prince William and Kate Middleton's Popularity: New Book," 17 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'excerpt.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.