What does excite mean?
"Excite" is a verb meaning to stir up strong feeling in someone — typically enthusiasm, eagerness, curiosity, or emotional intensity. A discovery may excite researchers, a plot twist excite readers, and good news excite a whole community. The word carries a broadly positive connotation in everyday use, suggesting energized anticipation rather than mere happiness, though it can also describe provoking less pleasant states such as jealousy or suspicion. Beyond its emotional sense, "excite" has precise technical meanings: physicists speak of exciting atoms or electrons to higher energy levels, and physiologists use it to describe stimulating nerves or muscles into activity. The word derives from the Latin excitare, "to call out or rouse." Its derived forms — excited, exciting, excitement, and excitable — are among the most frequently used words in English for describing stimulation and enthusiasm.
To cause strong feelings of enthusiasm, eagerness, or emotion in someone; to arouse interest.
"Her bold vision for the company excited investors and employees alike."
To raise an atom, electron, or nucleus to a higher energy state; to stimulate a nerve, muscle, or organ into activity.
"Heat applied to the gas excites its molecules, causing them to emit light."
The same Latin root that gives us "excite" — meaning literally "to call out" — also gave us "incite," which is why stirring up joy and stirring up a riot are, etymologically speaking, next-door neighbors.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of excite
"Excite" entered English in the late 16th century from the Latin excitare, a frequentative form of exciere meaning "to call out, rouse, or awaken," formed from ex- ("out") plus citare ("to summon or rouse"). This same root citare produced English words such as "incite," "cite," and "recite." Originally used in senses ranging from provoking emotions to physically rousing someone, the word later acquired specialized technical meanings in physics and physiology during the 19th century.
Related word forms
How excite is actually used
"Excite" is standard in both formal and informal registers. In everyday speech it appears most often in its adjectival forms (excited, exciting) rather than as a bare verb. The scientific sense (exciting atoms or nerves) belongs chiefly to physics, chemistry, and medical writing.
Easily confused with excite
"Excite" means to stir up feelings of enthusiasm or emotion in someone, while "incite" specifically means to provoke or urge someone toward action, often violent or unlawful.