excerpt

noun ex·cerpt \ ˈek-ˌsərpt , ˈeg-ˌzərpt \

Updated on: 14 Apr 2018

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

See excerpt defined for English-language learners

Examples of excerpt in a Sentence

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.

Recent Examples of excerpt from the Web

Thank you, @people for the wonderful opportunity to share more of my story including a feature and excerpts of my new book, This is Me before the official launch next Monday!

— megan friedman, Country Living, "Chrissy Metz Says Her Childhood Crush Refused to Be Seen With Her in Public," 27 Mar. 2018
Here are are excerpts from the 47-page indictment that highlight key allegations.

— steve vockrodt, kansascity, "10 key allegations in the Schlitterbahn indictment | The Kansas City Star," 23 Mar. 2018
At concerts, his pre-piece talks provide an extensive guide to the music about to be performed, illustrated with musical examples and excerpts.

— zoë madonna, BostonGlobe.com, "A conductor’s legacy, in a new website," 21 Mar. 2018
Below are some excerpts from the obituaries of black women whose lives and achievements are finally being recognized by the Times: Ida B. Wells Whenever possible, Wells named the victims of racist violence and told their stories.

— anne branigin, The Root, "The New York Times Finally Recognizes the Legacies of These World-Changing Black Women," 8 Mar. 2018
The following is an excerpt relevant to what’s happening right now.

— jorge ramos, Time, "Jorge Ramos: Why Dreamers and the Parkland Survivors Will Change America," 27 Feb. 2018
This is an excerpt from Wallis in Love by Andrew Morton.

— andrew morton, Town & Country, "Wallis Simpson and the Aftermath of the Abdication," 13 Feb. 2018
The following is an excerpt from the story of the 1979 Michigan State–Indiana State championship game, best known for being the first time Larry Bird and Magic Johnson faced each other on the national stage.

— SI.com, "The Game That Started the Madness: Magic vs. Bird in 1979 Michigan State–Indiana State Final," 7 Feb. 2018
Yesterday, a Tweet purporting to be an excerpt from Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury went viral.

— gabrielle bruney, Esquire, "President Trump Wants to Let You Know That He’s a ‘Very Stable Genius’," 6 Jan. 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.

Origin and Etymology of excerpt

see ²excerpt

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1627

See Words from the same year

excerpt Synonyms

Synonyms

extract, passage;

Related Words

clip, snippet, sound bite;

citation, quotation;

locus classicus;

sample, selection;

Other Literature Terms

apophasis, bathos, bildungsroman, bowdlerize, caesura, coda, doggerel, euphemism, poesy, prosody

excerpt

verb ex·cerpt \ ek-ˈsərpt , eg-ˈzərpt , ˈek-ˌsərpt , ˈeg-ˌzərpt \

transitive verb

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

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

—

excerptor

or excerpter noun

—

excerption

play \ek-ˈsərp-shən, eg-ˈzərp-\ noun

See excerpt defined for English-language learners

See excerpt defined for kids

Examples of excerpt in a Sentence

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