---
title: "The get_the_excerpt() WordPress function"
description: "Built within WordPress, is the ability to add excerpts to your posts. Of course, these excerpts will not do you any good if you cannot display them on your WordPress site. In this article, we will..."
url: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/wordpress/get-the-excerpt-wordpress-function/
date: 2014-06-30
modified: 2022-04-21
author: "Jeff Matson"
categories: ["WordPress Hosting", "WordPress Tutorials"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# The get_the_excerpt() WordPress function

Built within WordPress, is the ability to add excerpts to your posts. Of course, these excerpts will not do you any good if you cannot display them on your WordPress site. In this article, we will show you the *get_the_excerpt()* function that you can use within your themes or plugins to display the post excerpt.

If you would like more information on creating WordPress plugins, see our tutorial series on [creating your first WordPress plugin](/support/edu/wordpress/plugins/create-a-wordpress-plugin/).

## Basic usage

<?php $excerpt = get_the_excerpt() ?>

In this example, we simply get the excerpt using the *get_the_excerpt()* function, and assign it to the *$excerpt* variable.

Now that the variable contains the excerpt of the post, we can now display it like this:

<?php echo $excerpt; ?>

## What if I don’t have an excerpt defined?

If an excerpt is not defined within the post, the *wp_trim_excerpt()* function will be used on the post content so that an excerpt is still displayed.

wp_trim_excerpt( string $text = '', WP_Post|object|int $post = null )

For more information on the *wp_trim_excerpt()* function, take a look at the [*wp_trim_excerpt()* WordPress reference page](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_trim_excerpt/).

## References

For the full, official documentation on the *get_the_excerpt()* function, take a look at the [*get_the_excerpt()* WordPress reference page](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_the_excerpt/).