What is the Latin word for except?

The usual Latin words for “except” are excipiō, eximō, exclūdō; also praeter, extrā, praeterquam. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

English → Latin

“except” in Latin

excipiōto take out, extract, pull out; to except, exempt from, exclude; to rescue, release eximōto take out, take away, remove or extract; to free; to release, deliver exclūdōto shut out; cut off, remove, separate from something; to except, exclude; to hinder, prevent praeterpast, by (of motion); besides, except; beyond extrāon the outside praeterquambeyond, besides; except, save; not only nisī̆if not, unless, except et cēteraet cetera, and the rest, and so on: used to note that the rest of a list or piece of information continues in a similar

The English word except itself goes back to Latin capiō, through exceptus.

Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864

except v.

excipere: eximere: excludere (to shut out, exclude): discedere ab aliquo, a re (to pass on from an exception one has found, for the purpose of finding another). To except anyone by name, aliquem nominatim excipere: when I except you, cum a vobis discesserim: if I except brotherly love, cum a fraterno amore discessi: none excepted, ad unum omnes, or omnes ad unum; singuli universique (one and all): that excepted, cum ab illo discesseris; illud si exceperis, excluseris.

To object, (α) In law, exceptione uti (Paullus, Dig., 44, 1, 8); against anybody or anything, alicui or alicui rei; exceptionem opponere; excipere adversus aliquem (Ulp., and Paullus, Dig., 44, 1, 2; and 20; African., Dig., 16, 1, 17, § 1); on account of anything, excipere de aliqua re (Ulp., Dig., 44, 4, 4). (β)

In common life; Vid: OBJECT.

except

prep, praeter, with an accusative in negative and general propositions: extra, with an accusative: praeterquam (adverb, except): nisi ( “if not,” “unless,” after negations and in negative questions; Vid: Zumpt, § 735): cum discesseris ab aliquo, ab aliqua re (i. e., after you have left that) etc.: excepto, excepta, exceptis (being excepted): all the enemy, except some few, were taken alive, paucis ex hominum numero desideratis, cuncti vivi capiebantur: philosophers maintain that no one except the philosopher is a perfect man, philosophi negant, quemquam virum bonum esse, nisi sapientem: except that, nisi quod (Cic., Fam. 13, 1, etc.): praeterquam quod (Vid: Zumpt, § 627): excepto quod (☞ this is rare): except in case of, extra quam si (especially in forms of exception; Vid: Cic., ad Att., 6, 1, 15): praeterquam si (Plin., 8, 25, 39): excepto, si (Persius, 5, 90): nisi, nisi si (if not, unless, only in case that; Vid: Zumpt, § 343): cf., Non nisi should not be written as one word; they very seldom even stand together [Cic., Verr., 1, 39, 98, is an exception]: you wrote nothing to me except what was perfectly true, tu, nisi quod verum erat, profecto non scripsisti (the nisi generally, but by no means always, precedes): except one, or at the most two, excepto uno aut ad summum altero: all except you two, omnes, exceptis vobis duobus.

Quick answer

What is the Latin word for except?: The usual Latin words for “except” are excipiō, eximō, exclūdō; also praeter, extrā, praeterquam. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.