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Except vs Unless - What's the difference?

except | unless |

Unless is a conjunction of except.



As conjunctions the difference between except and unless

is that except is with the exception (that); used to introduce a clause, phrase or adverb forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated while unless is except on a specified condition; if not.

As a verb except

is to exclude; to specify as being an exception.

As a preposition except

is with the exception of; but.

except

English

Alternative forms

* excepte (rare or archaic)

Verb

(en verb)
  • To exclude; to specify as being an exception.
  • * 2007 , Glen Bowersock, ‘Provocateur’, London Review of Books 29:4, page 17:
  • But this [ban on circumcision] must have been a provocation, as the emperor Antoninus Pius later acknowledged by excepting the Jews.
  • To take exception, to object (to' or ' against ).
  • to except to a witness or his testimony
  • * Shakespeare
  • Except thou wilt except against my love.
  • *, vol.1, New York Review Books 2001, p.312:
  • Yea, but methinks I hear some man except at these words […].
  • * 1658 , Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial , Penguin 2005, page 23:
  • The Athenians'' might fairly except against the practise of ''Democritus to be buried up in honey; as fearing to embezzle a great commodity of their Countrey
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, page 96:
  • he was a great lover of music, and perhaps, had he lived in town, might have passed for a connoisseur; for he always excepted against the finest compositions of Mr Handel.

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • With the exception of; but.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= It's a gas , passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.}}

    Synonyms

    * apart from * bar * but * other than * save

    Derived terms

    * except for * except for opinion

    Conjunction

    (English Conjunctions)
  • With the exception (that); used to introduce a clause, phrase or adverb forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated.
  • :
  • *
  • *:"I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal.."
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
  • , chapter=2 citation , passage=Mother
  • (lb) Unless; used to introduce a hypothetical case in which an exception may exist.
  • *1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , (w) IX:
  • *:And they sayde: We have no moo but five loves and two fisshes, except we shulde goo and bye meate for all this people.
  • *1621 , (Robert Burton), (The Anatomy of Melancholy) , New York 2001, p.106:
  • *:Offensive wars, except the cause be very just, I will not allow of.
  • Statistics

    *

    unless

    English

    Alternative forms

    * unlesse (obsolete)

    Conjunction

    (English Conjunctions)
  • Except on a specified condition; if not.
  • I’m leaving unless I get a pay rise (AmE: raise).
  • *
  • * 1839 , Denison Olmsted, A Compendium of Astronomy Page 95
  • Secondly, When a body is once in motion it will continue to move forever, unless something stops it. When a ball is struck on the surface of the earth, the friction of the earth and the resistance of the air soon stop its motion.

    Antonyms

    * (except on a condition) if

    Derived terms

    * precisely unless * unlesss * unless and until, until and unless

    Statistics

    *