Wiktionary

except

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Middle French excepter, from Latin exceptus.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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except (third-person singular simple present excepts, present participle excepting, simple past and past participle excepted)

  1. (transitive) To exclude; to specify as being an exception.
    I find most people annoying — present company excepted, of course!
    • 2007, Glen Bowersock, “Provocateur”, in London Review of Books, 29:4, page 17:
      But this [ban on circumcision] must have been a provocation, as the emperor Antoninus Pius later acknowledged by excepting the Jews.
  2. (intransitive) To take exception, to object (to or against).
    to except to a witness or his testimony
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Translations

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Preposition

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except

  1. Used to introduce a noun or noun phrase forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated.
    Synonyms: apart from, except for, outtake, with the exception of
    There was nothing in the cupboard except a tin of beans.
    • 1983, Paul T. Rogers, Saul's Book:
      Except that he is wearing polka-dot drawers, he is buck naked.
    • 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:
      One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Conjunction

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except

  1. Used to introduce a clause, phrase, verb infinitive, adverb or other non-noun complement forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated.
    You look a bit like my sister, except (that) she has longer hair.
    I never made fun of her except teasingly.
    To survive, I did everything except steal.
    Come any time except between ten and twelve.
    • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:
      "I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal. […]."
    • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 2, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
      Mother […] considered that the exclusiveness of Peter's circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom, from which every Kensingtonian held aloof, except on the conventional tip-and-run excursions in pursuit of shopping, tea and theatres.
  2. (informal) Loosely, used to introduce a contrastive statement explaining why something wasn't successful, didn't happen, etc.
    They fired tear gas at us, except the wind was blowing the wrong way.
    I almost walked out, except I remembered the promise I had made.
  3. (archaic) Unless; used to introduce a hypothetical case in which an exception may exist.

Usage notes

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The part-of-speech designation of "except" may be debatable for certain complement types.

Translations

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Anagrams

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin exceptus.

Adjective

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except m or n (feminine singular exceptă, masculine plural excepți, feminine and neuter plural excepte)

  1. excepted

Declension

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singular plural
masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
nominative/
accusative 		indefinite except exceptă excepți excepte
definite exceptul excepta excepții exceptele
genitive/
dative 		indefinite except excepte excepți excepte
definite exceptului exceptei excepților exceptelor

References

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  • except in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN
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