gerund or present participle
Leaving someone or something out deliberately.
Excluding children under five from the survey could distort the results.
The report is excluding several important sources.
American English
How to pronounce excluding
verb · prepositionB2Common word
ihksKLOOdihng
/ɪksˈkʰlu.ɾɪŋ/
3 syllables · Stress the second syllable.
Form of exclude
Leaving someone or something out deliberately.
What to listen for
In American English, the middle /d/ in “excluding” is often a quick tap, shown as /ɾ/. You may hear the word as /ɪksˈkʰlu.ɾɪŋ/.
Meanings & examples
gerund or present participle
Keeping someone from entering a place or taking part in an activity.
Excluding him from the team was unfair.
The new rule is excluding part-time workers from the benefit.
gerund or present participle
Ruling out something as impossible, untrue, or the cause of a problem.
Excluding human error as a cause, the team checked the equipment.
The test results are excluding an infection as the cause of her symptoms.
preposition
It means not including a person or thing in a group, amount, or list.
The price is $40, excluding tax.
The park is open every day, excluding major holidays.
Good to know
In this use, excluding means “except for” and is followed by a noun or noun phrase.
Useful expressions
to decide not to think about or use someone or something
The committee excluded cost from consideration.
to decide that something cannot happen or be true
The tests did not exclude the possibility of a software error.