excise
/ˈɛkˌsaɪz/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.26 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A tax charged on goods produced within the country (as opposed to customs duties, charged on goods from outside the country).
Countable; Uncountable
verb
To impose an excise tax on something.
Example Sentences
- "Andrew Houſtoun and Adam Muſhet, being Tackſmen of the Excize, did Imploy Thomas Rue to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30. pound Sterling for a year."
- "1755, Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, "excise", A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom Excise is paid."
- "1787, Constitution of the United States of America, Article I, Section 8, The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts […] of the United States;"
- "Military censors have excised some details from the photographs for security reasons."
- "[T]hey [warts] may be lifted up with the forceps, and excised with a knife or scissors, and the wound touched with nitrate of silver."
- "1901, Andrew Lang, Preface to the second edition of Myth, Ritual, and Religion, In revising the book I […] have excised certain passages which, as the book first appeared, were inconsistent with its main thesis."
Etymology
From Middle Dutch excijs, altered under the influence of Latin excisus (“cut out, removed”), from earlier accijs (“tax”), from Old French acceis (“tax, assessment”) (whence modern French accise), from Vulgar Latin *accensum, ultimately from Latin ad + census (“tax, census”).
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
- Root: excijs, acceis, *accensum, ad, *kh₂eyd-, exciser
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɛkˌsaɪz/
- British English: /ˈɛkˌsaɪz/