excerpt

/ˈɛksɜrpt/

Other forms: excerpts; excerpted; excerpting

Instead of sharing all 147 lines of your favorite poem in class, you might want to read an excerpt, that is, just a part of the verses, so no one dozes off.

Excerpt sounds a lot like "except" with an added "r," and it came into English in the 16th century from a Latin word meaning "plucked out." When the word is used as a verb, excerpt means to take a portion out, usually from a play, book, article, song, or other written work. And the part that is taken out also is called an excerpt, but it is a noun, that is, a thing. An excerpt is something you excerpt, or pluck out, from a larger piece.

Definitions of excerpt

1. noun

   a passage selected from a larger work
   “he presented excerpts from William James' philosophical writings”

   synonyms: excerption, extract, selection

   examples:

   Haphtarah

   a short selection from the Prophets read on every Sabbath in a Jewish synagogue following a reading from the Torah

   types:

   chrestomathy

   a selection of passages from different authors that is compiled as an aid in learning a language

   analecta, analects

   a collection of excerpts from a literary work

   clipping, cutting, newspaper clipping, press clipping, press cutting

   an excerpt cut from a newspaper or magazine

   cut, track

   a distinct selection of music from a recording or a compact disc

   citation, quotation, quote

   a passage or expression that is quoted or cited

   epigraph

   a quotation at the beginning of some piece of writing

   mimesis

   the representation of another person's words in a speech

   misquotation, misquote

   an incorrect quotation

   type of:

   passage

   a section of text; particularly a section of medium length
2. verb

   take out of a literary work in order to cite or copy
   synonyms: extract, take out

   type of:

   choose, pick out, select, take

   pick out, select, or choose from a number of alternatives