Word Confusion: Accede vs Concede vs Exceed

Posted April 26, 2022 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
16 Oct 2022

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I’ll accede that I don’t like to concede, and my ideas tend to exceed what I can truly accomplish by myself.

The word confusion accede vs concede vs exceed have one thing in common: -cede/ceed, meaning go.

Accede is all about agreement or giving consent.

Concede is yielding, giving in, or admitting.

Exceed is going beyond or being greater than.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Accede	Concede	Exceed
The Coronation of Charles VII of France in Reims Cathedral, a painting by Eugène Lenepveu, is under the Licence Ouverte 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons and courtesy of Centre des Monuments Nationaux. See the complete painting. — Charles VII acceded to the throne in 1429.	Cardiff Concede by Jon Candy is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Flickr.	Waste Bins Overflowing on the National Mall, Washington D.C., is Dr Torsten Henning‘s own work and is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. — I’d say the amount of garbage exceeds the cans’ capacity.
Part of Grammar:
Verb, intransitive Third person present verb: accedes Past tense or past participle: acceded Present participle: acceding	Verb, intransitive, transitive, or reporting Third person present verb: concedes Past tense or past participle: conceded Present participle: conceding	Verb, intransitive & transitive Third person present verb: exceeds Past tense or past participle: exceeded Present participle: exceeding
[Usually accede to; formal] Agree to a demand, request, or treaty Assume an office or position Become a member of a community or organization	Verb, intransitive: To grant something Yield to pressure or circumstances Admit defeat Verb, transitive: Admit that something is true or valid after first denying or resisting it Admit (defeat) in a contest To grant as a right or privilege Yield Surrender or yield (something that one possesses) Grant (a right, privilege, or demand) [In sports] Fail to prevent the scoring of (a goal or point) by an opponent Allow (a lead or advantage) to slip Verb, reporting: Admit that something is true or valid after first denying or resisting it	Verb, intransitive: To be greater, as in quantity or degree To surpass others Excel Be superior [Obsolete] Overdo Verb, transitive: Be greater in number or size than (a quantity, number, or other measurable thing) Go beyond what is allowed or stipulated by (a set limit, especially of one’s authority) Be better than Surpass
Examples:
The authorities did not accede to the strikers’ demands. I found myself with little choice but to accede. He acceded to the post of director in September. By now John had died and Henry III had acceded. Albania acceded to the IMF in 1990.	Verb, intransitive: She was so persistent that I conceded at last. My favorite candidate conceded before the polls were even closed! Despite the result, he refuses to concede defeat. Verb, transitive: That principle now seems to have been conceded. He conceded defeat. He ready to concede the gold medal. The company conceded to a longer vacation for all employees. It was his choice to concede all the territory he’d won. Their rights to redress of grievances were conceded once more. The coach conceded three safeties rather than kick into the wind. He took an early lead that he never conceded. Verb, reporting: I had to concede that I’d overreacted. “All right then,” she conceded. When the allegations were put to McKellar, he denied them while conceding that complaints had been made.	Verb, intransitive: “The value of her home far exceeds what she owes” (Wallis). “Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee” (Deuteronomy). She was dressed to exceed. Verb, transitive: Production costs have exceeded $60,000. The Tribunal’s decision clearly exceeds its powers under the statute. Catalog sales have exceeded expectations.
Derivatives:
Adjective: nonacceding Noun: accedence, acceder, acceding, nonaccedence	Adjective: concessible, unconceding Adverb: concededly Noun: conceder, conceding, concession Verb: preconcede, preconceded, preconceding	Adjective: exceedable, exceeding, unexceedable Adverb: exceedingly Noun: exceedance, exceeder, exceeding Verb: superexceed
History of the Word:
Late Middle English, in the general sense come forward, approach, from the Latin accedere, from ad- (to) + cedere (give way, yield).	Late 15th century, from the French concéder or the Latin concedere, from con- (completely) + cedere (yield).	Late Middle English, in the sense go over a boundary or specified point, is from the Old French exceder, from the Latin excedere, from ex- (out) + cedere (go).

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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Resources for Accede vs Concede vs Exceed

Apple Dictionary.com

Collins Dictionary: exceed

Deuteronomy 25:3. King James Bible.

Dictionary.com: accede, concede, exceed

Lexico.com: concede

Wallis, Virginia. “My Daughter-in-law Wants to Sell a Standalone Garage.” Ask the Experts: Homebuying. Mortgages. The Guardian. 1 July 2019. Web. 20 April 2022. <https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/jul/01/my-daughter-in-law-wants-to-sell-a-standalone-garage>.

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