excerpt

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

|Updated on: 16 Aug 2018

Examples: excerpt in a Sentence

Definition of excerpt

: 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

Cohan often plays excerpts of these and other original compositions, scaled down to the instrumentation at hand, which this time will be a sterling quartet featuring saxophonist John Wojciechowski, bassist James Cammack and drummer George Fludas.

— howard reich, chicagotribune.com, "From Bernstein to Broadway to Latin jazz," 12 July 2018
Paul Shechtman, a lawyer for Buffalo-area developer Louis Ciminielli, read excerpts of testimony from the government’s star witness to jurors to show that his client acted honorably and legally.

— larry neumeister, The Seattle Times, "New York jury set to deliberate in ‘Buffalo Billion’ case," 10 July 2018
Earlier this week, a small town newspaper posted an excerpt of the Declaration of Independence and Facebook flagged it as hate speech before eventually restoring it.

— Fox News, "Rep. Raul Labrador: Disappointing we couldn't change D.C.," 7 July 2018
Several weeks later, French newspaper Le Monde released excerpts of police testimony with suspect Aomar Ait Kihedach, the mastermind who allegedly confessed to the crime.

— kc baker, PEOPLE.com, "Kim Kardashian West Reveals the Steps She Takes to Protect Herself Since the Paris Robbery," 5 July 2018
Both New Hampshire Frost museums have short nature trails, with signs displaying excerpts of Frost’s poetry.

— tyler malone, latimes.com, "The road taken by Robert Frost through New England," 29 June 2018
If Baylor really believed that anything in the motion were misleading or out of context, then Baylor could easily allow full excerpts of Mr. McCaw's deposition to be released after removal of any private student information.

— mac engel, star-telegram, "Baylor has no shame after regents 'scapegoated' black football players in rape scandal," 27 June 2018
This excerpt of the book was provided to the Free Press for publication on the 21st anniversary of the infamous limousine crash that ended Konstaninov's career and also injured Fetisov, team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov and driver Richard Gnida.

— keith gave, Detroit Free Press, "Limousine crash ended Detroit Red Wings' summer of joy after just 6 days," 13 June 2018
Check out an excerpt of this fantastic world here, complete with original illustrations.

— dougal dixon, Discover Magazine, "What Might Earth's Wildlife Look Like if Humans Disappeared?," 31 May 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

in the meaning defined above

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 \

Definition of excerpt

excerpted; excerpting; excerpts

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

Recent Examples of excerpt from the Web

This essay is excerpted from Custodians of the Internet by Tarleton Gillespie, published by Yale University Press and used by permission.

— tarleton gillespie, WIRED, "How Social Networks Set the Limits of What We Can Say Online," 26 June 2018
The following is excerpted from Davey Johnson: My Wild Ride in Baseball and Beyond by Davey Johnson with Erik Sherman is printed with the permission of Triumph Books.

— davey johnson, SI.com, "What It Was Like to Manage a Rookie Doc Gooden, the Gritty Wally Backman and the New York Mets," 1 June 2018
By Leslie Carroll Leslie Carroll provides heavily researched insight into the newest member of the royal family in American Princess (William Morrow), excerpted here.

— keziah weir, Vanities, "All the Books to Read for Your Post-Wedding Royals Fix," 24 May 2018
In a wide-ranging story for Vulture that is excerpted from a forthcoming monograph, author Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah profiles figurative painter Henry Taylor, who had five new paintings exhibited at last year’s Whitney Biennial.

— danielle jackson, Longreads, "‘Wild With Love’: Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah on the Portraits of Henry Taylor," 12 July 2018
Their determination is captured in a 17-minute documentary, Awakening: After Parkland, premiering Monday on Topic.com and excerpted exclusively above.

— jeff truesdell, PEOPLE.com, "Parkland Shooting Survivors Find Inspiration, Purpose in Staging Timely Musical Born of Teenage Pain," 29 June 2018
Only two Bournonville excerpts shone with a singularity that revealed the personable warmth and gestural ease long associated with the company’s dancers.

— robert greskovic, WSJ, "A Mixed Bill With Varied Results," 22 June 2018
Toward the end, the musicians enacted a rebellion against routine, throwing down their music stands and stalking offstage while a chaotic electronic collage of Beethoven excerpts swelled on the sound system.

— alex ross, The New Yorker, "The Sonic Fury of the Ojai Music Festival," 24 June 2018
My letter of resignation was printed in full in the student newspaper and excerpted on this page.

— paul s. levy, WSJ, "University Boardrooms Need Reform," 10 June 2018