Difference between Extract and Excerpt

What is the difference between Extract and Excerpt?

Extract as a noun is that which is extracted or drawn out. while Excerpt as a noun is a clip, snippet, passage or extract from a larger work such as a news article, a film, a literary composition or other media

Extract

Part of speech: noun

Definition: That which is extracted or drawn out. A portion of a book or document, incorporated distinctly in another work; a citation; a quotation. A decoction, solution, or infusion made by drawing out from any substance that which gives it its essential and characteristic virtue; essence; as, extract of beef; extract of dandelion; also, any substance so extracted, and characteristic of that from which it is obtained; as, quinine is the most important extract of Peruvian bark. A solid preparation obtained by evaporating a solution of a drug, etc., or the fresh juice of a plant; -- distinguished from an abstract. A peculiar principle once erroneously supposed to form the basis of all vegetable extracts; -- called also the extractive principle. Ancestry; descent. A draft or copy of writing; a certified copy of the proceedings in an action and the judgment therein, with an order for execution.

Part of speech: verb

Definition: To draw out or forth; to pull out; to remove forcibly from a fixed position, as by traction or suction, etc.; as, to extract a tooth from its socket, a stump from the earth, a splinter from the finger. To withdraw by expression, distillation, or other mechanical or chemical process; as, to extract an essence. Compare abstract, transitive verb. To take by selection; to choose out; to cite or quote, as a passage from a book. To determine (a root of a number).

Example sentence: I think, as human beings, we all have a fundamental mode, a basic way of relating to the rest of reality, and for me, it's always instinctively been about sound making and trying to extract information, grammar, meaning from sound making. That's been my way of navigating reality that's very personal; a painter might say they make marks or look.

Excerpt

Part of speech: verb

Definition: To select or copy sample material (excerpts) from a work.

Part of speech: noun

Definition: a clip, snippet, passage or extract from a larger work such as a news article, a film, a literary composition or other media

We hope you now know whether to use Extract or Excerpt in your sentence.

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