What does excide mean?
"Excide" is a rare English verb meaning to cut out or cut away, most often used of surgical removal or deliberate excision of material from a larger whole. It derives from the Latin excidere, formed from ex- ("out") and caedere ("to cut"), the same cutting root that gives us "incise," "decide," and "suicide." In practice the word belongs chiefly to formal and historical registers: older medical texts speak of exciding tumors or diseased tissue, and literary editors once spoke of exciding objectionable passages. Today it survives mostly as an archaic curiosity, having been almost completely supplanted by "excise," which carries the same sense in both surgical and figurative contexts. For readers who encounter it, however, "excide" offers a vivid reminder that many common words conceal a blade: to decide is etymologically to cut off alternatives, just as to excide is to cut a thing cleanly out.
verbTo cut out or cut away, especially surgically or by deliberate removal; to excise.
- To cut out or cut away, especially by surgical or deliberate removal.
- (Archaic/rare) To destroy by cutting; to cut off.
"The surgeon elected to excide the damaged tissue rather than risk leaving any behind."
"The pathologist excided a small sample of the growth for closer examination."
"Editors of the anthology chose to excide several passages deemed too inflammatory for publication."
Buried in medical Latin and old surgical texts, "excide" is the ancestor word that "excise" largely replaced — yet its root lives on in everyday words like "decide," literally "to cut off" all other options.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of excide
"Excide" comes from the Latin excidere, a compound of ex- ("out") and caedere ("to cut, strike down"), so the original sense is literally "to cut out." It entered English in the early modern period, borrowed through scholarly and medical Latin, and was used chiefly in surgical contexts alongside its noun relative "excision." The same Latin root caedere underlies a whole family of English words, including "incise," "decide," "coincide," and "suicide." Over time the verb "excide" fell out of general use, eclipsed by "excise," which preserves the identical meaning today.
Related word forms
How excide is actually used
"Excide" is a rare, formal, and somewhat archaic term, encountered mainly in older surgical writing and learned prose; in modern usage "excise" has almost entirely displaced it.
Easily confused with excide
"Excise" is the far more common verb for cutting something out and also names a tax on goods, while "excide" is a rare, largely archaic synonym meaning simply to cut out.
"Incide" means to cut into or carve, whereas "excide" means to cut something out or away entirely.