The English language is full of words that have similar sounds and spellings, causing confusion to most of us. Among these puzzling terms are access and excess. Despite their similarity, these two terms have very distinct uses.
The word access may be used as a noun meaning “permission, liberty, or ability to enter, approach, or pass to and from a place or to approach or communicate with a person or thing” or “freedom or ability to obtain or make use of something.”
Medicaid patients could face restrictions to access to antipsychotic medications
Columbia MissourianIt’s Whether rEU Has Access To London’s Financial Services, Not Banks To rEU
ForbesGerman parents sue Facebook because it won’t grant them access to their dead daughter’s account as they try to find out if her death five years ago was suicide or an accident
Daily Mail
Access may also be used as a noun referring to “a means of approaching or entering a place.”
Europeans’ Visa-Free Access to U.S. Needs Review, Kelly Says
BloombergAlaska lawmakers approve $3.5 million project for public access, air system at their Anchorage offices
Alaska Dispatch NewsNew HofGarden taproom expands access to Scott’s Addition rooftop venue
wtvr.com
As a verb, access means “to be able to use, enter, or get near something” or “to open or load a computer file, an Internet site, etc.”
Australian Federal Police accessed metadata without warrant, broke law
The RegisterNYPD officers accessed Black Lives Matter activists’ texts, documents show
The GuardianBlack women face barriers accessing HIV prevention and treatment
Real Change News
Meanwhile, excess is mostly used as a noun referring to “an amount of something that is more than necessary, permitted, or desirable” or “lack of moderation in an activity, especially eating or drinking.”
Excess if any in name of Goraksha, will be dealt with firmly: Amit Shah
Economic TimesAn Excess of Faith at Indian Banks
Wall Street JournalChina’s credit excess is unlike anything the world has ever seen
South China Morning Post
Excess may also function as an adjective meaniing “more than the usual, proper, or specified amount.”
3,000 excess staff of Annamalai university redeployed
Times of IndiaUltimate Moneyball – How You Can Capture Excess Returns
ForbesJerry Davis: Excess morels can be hawked
Madison.com
Can you use access and excess in a sentence now?
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