Similar words: excluding, include, conclude, exclude, conclusion, landing, dining, trading. Meaning: [ɪn’kluːd] 
prep.you use including to introduce examples of people or things that are part of the group of people or things that you are talking about..
1. The price is ￡25.50, including postage and packing.
2. All on the plane were killed, including the pilot.
3. I did everything to hurt her, including sleeping around.
4. The store had everything including the proverbial kitchen sink.
5. Their new house has four storeys including the attic.
6. I care about you all,including the man you love.
7. He has admitted committing several crimes, including two murders.
8. He had several injuries, including three fractures.
9. They have many pets, including three cats.
10. The system costs £99.95 including postage, packing and a 12-month guarantee.
11. He’d do anything to cover his ass, including lie, cheat and murder.
12. They were subjected to various indignities and discomforts, including having to get dressed and undressed in public.
13. We had various problems on our journey, including a puncture.
14. Some industries, including airlines and trucking have already started to deregulate.
15. She laid down strict rules for her tenants including prompt payment of rent.
16. I’d like to have dinner for sixty dollars including drinks.
17. He is putting together a four-man team, including his son and namesake Tony 0’Reilly Jnr.
18. Revenue from brown goods, including televisions and hi-fis, rose nearly 12 per cent.
19. The Prime Minister met many civic leaders, including the mayor and the leaders of the immigrant communities.
20. He has several economic irons in the fire, including gold and diamond mines.
21. The whole trip, including fares, comes out at $900.
22. She has many occupations including gardening and wine-making.
23. She’d undergone 13 operations,[http://sentencedict.com] including a tummy tuck.
24. Stars including Joan Collins are expected to attend.
25. It’s yours for ￡13.99, including postage and packing.
26. For many years, experts in occupational health have puzzled over symptoms reported by office workers, including headache, nausea and fatigue.
27. You can still find cottages for ￡150 a week, including heating.
28. We win half the battle when we make up our minds to take the world as we find it, including the thorns.
29. Oil is an important raw material which can be processed into many different products, including plastics.
30. The treatment has a whole host of extremely unpleasant side-effects including weight gain, acne, skin rashes and headaches.
Examples of how to use the word “including” in a sentence. How to connect “including” with other words to make correct English sentences.
including (prep): used for saying that a person or thing is part of a particular group or amount
Use “including” in a sentence
| There are ten people including you. |
| How much is it including insurance and tax? |
| How much is it including insurance and tax?
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“Including” is a surprisingly difficult word to punctuate correctly. It’s a preposition and a verb, depending on how you use it. This can lead to difficulty understanding the comma rules. This article will explore all you need to know when punctuating “including.”
“Including” should have a comma before it when it’s part of a non-essential clause or parenthetical element. For example, you might say, “these countries, including Mexico, need the most help.” The phrase with “including” can be removed, showing that it’s non-essential.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- “Including” rarely requires a comma.
- You should only include a comma before “including” when it is the first word of a non-essential clause, e.g. “this, including that, is correct.”
Here are a few more examples to demonstrate how this works:
- Matt’s friends, including Billy, decided playing a few pranks on him would be fun.
- The cities, including Chicago, all elected to vote on the new protocols.
“Including” is part of a non-essential phrase in both examples. You may remove it, and the sentence will still make sense. For example:
- Matt’s friends decided playing a few pranks on him would be fun.
This is the most likely time when a comma comes before “including.”
The Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook both explain that commas are treated like parentheses. This means you may use them to include additional information in a sentence. You do not have to include the information (and it can be removed).
When to Place a Comma Before “Including”
There aren’t many situations where commas work with “including.” Once you know the main situations, you’ll know all of them.
A comma comes before “including” when it is the first word of a non-essential clause. The easiest way to test whether a clause is non-essential is by removing it from a sentence.
- The people, including my mother and father, were going to watch.
- The people were going to watch.
Here, you can see that “including” is non-essential to the sentence. A comma comes before it to offset the non-essential clause before going into more detail.
When to Use “Including” Without a Comma
“Including” is most commonly seen without a comma. It is a verb in most cases, meaning you do not need to use a comma because it demonstrates the action of “including” something.
In most sentences, “including” is an action. You can use it in the following ways without punctuation:
- I wrote those including but not limited to the rest of the products as well.
- We were including everybody in our games, but we don’t want to do that anymore.
- Including Jackie was a mistake. We’re so sorry we put you through that.
You might also find that “including” is part of a restrictive clause. This is similar to a non-essential clause because it’s not a complete sentence. However, it does not get any commas around it because it “restricts” the rest of the sentence from being correct on its own.
Here’s what a restrictive clause with “including” looks like:
- I only eat meals including burgers.
Here, “including burgers” is used to show that you only eat specific types of meals. You do not need a comma before “including” because it is not a non-essential clause. If you remove “including burgers,” the sentence makes very little sense.
- I only eat meals.
This is the easiest test to see whether “including” is non-essential or restrictive. Remove the phrase starting at “including” to find out whether a comma is needed.
Comma After “Including”?
There is never a time when a comma should come after “including.” “Including” comes with two main uses: a preposition or a verb. Neither situation requires a comma after it because “including” is supposed to continue into more information.
You may not include a comma after “including” before a list, even though some people have a habit of doing this:
- Correct: The singers, including Miley Cyrus and Billie Eilish, were all there.
- Incorrect: My friends, including, Matt, Joseph, and Clark, knew I was going to be with them.
Including a comma after “including” makes no sense here. You should avoid doing it because it creates a jarring pause in the sentence structure.
Martin holds a Master’s degree in Finance and International Business. He has six years of experience in professional communication with clients, executives, and colleagues. Furthermore, he has teaching experience from Aarhus University. Martin has been featured as an expert in communication and teaching on Forbes and Shopify. Read more about Martin here.
Many people get confused about how to punctuate the word including in a sentence. If you’re wondering what punctuation to use, you’re not alone.
So when do you need to use a comma before a word like including?
You should use a comma before including when you’re adding a nonessential clause or phrase, which doesn’t change the basic meaning of the sentence.
If the phrase beginning with including is essential for the meaning of the sentence, you shouldn’t use a comma.
In this article, we explain these grammatical rules and give you examples of sentences that do and do not use a comma before the word including.
Should You Put a Comma Before or After Including?
To decide whether or not you need to use a comma before including, imagine what would happen if you were to remove the phrase that begins with including. How much would that change the meaning of the sentence?
If taking out the phrase that begins with including would alter the fundamental meaning of the sentence, you should not use a comma before including.
This is because you don’t want to separate that phrase from the rest of the sentence.
On the other hand, if taking out the phrase wouldn’t fundamentally alter the meaning, you should use a comma before including.
Let’s look at each of these situations in more detail.
Comma Before Including
You should use a comma before including if you’re using the word including to introduce a non-restrictive clause or phrase.
In other words, you should use a comma if you could remove the phrase that begins with including without completely changing the sentence.
For example, consider the sentence, “My sister loves sugary foods, including ice cream and chocolate.”
You can take out the phrase, “including ice cream and chocolate” without changing the fundamental meaning of the sentence.
The sentence, “My sister loves sugary foods.” can stand alone to express what you’re trying to say.
Here are some other examples of cases when you need to use a comma before including:
- She’s met many influential people, including the President of the United States.
- I’ve watched all the Tom Cruise movies, including Mission Impossible and Top Gun.
- You need to complete all your homework assignments, including the boring ones.
Comma After Including
Using a comma after including is much rarer than using a comma before including.
You should only do this when you’re interrupting the sentence with another word or clause immediately after the word including.
For example, consider the sentence: “We sell all types of books here, including, but not limited to, fantasy novels.”
The purpose of the comma after including is to add a pause before the interrupter “but not limited to.”
Here are some other examples of cases when you might use a comma after including:
- I love eating weird foods, including, on occasion, rattlesnake meat.
- We need to write lots of thank-you cards, including, as you know, one to Grandma.
- Bobby has many health conditions, including, as his mother mentioned, severe asthma.
If you’re not sure whether to include a comma before or after including, you can run your writing through ProWritingAid, which will highlight incorrect comma usage and help you fix it.
No Comma Before or After Including
On the other hand, you should not use a comma before including if you’re using including to introduce a restrictive phrase or clause.
In other words, you shouldn’t use a comma if removing the phrase that begins with including would fundamentally change the meaning.
For example, consider the sentence, “My sister is including ice cream in her diet.”
In this case, taking out the phrase “including ice cream in her diet” would change the meaning of the sentence because, “My sister is” doesn’t express a complete thought.
Here are some other examples of cases when you don’t need to use a comma before including:
- I’ll be including some of your photos in my portfolio.
- Are we including Sarah on the guest list?
- You only laugh at movies including slapstick humor.
Should You Put a Semicolon Before Including?
You should never use a semicolon before including. Semicolons should primarily be used to separate items on a list or to separate two complete thoughts.
The word including is rarely used to start a complete thought, so you should use a comma before this word, not a semicolon.
Examples Using Including in a Sentence
Let’s look at some examples from English literature of sentences that use or omit a comma before the word including.
“By including animals in my life I was always engaging with the Other, imagining the animal mind and life.”—Brenda Peterson, Build Me an Ark
“I saw him glance at Amena, who at the moment was an inert pile of limbs under a blanket with a pillow jammed into her face. (Humans do everything weird, including rest.)”—Martha Wells, Network Effect
“Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.”—Wallace Stegner, The Spectator Bird
“As strong as he looked, inside he was a ruin, or perhaps a funeral pyre, like the Cusp—only instead of the melted bones of ijji, he was made up of the skeletons of babies and children, including, as he had always believed, his own child: her.”—Laini Taylor, Strange the Dreamer
“When it comes to actually pulling this off, the writer is much more fortunate than the filmmaker, who is almost always doomed to show too much…including, in nine cases out of ten, the zipper running up the monster’s back.”—Stephen King, On Writing
Conclusion on How to Punctuate Including
There you have it: a complete guide for how to punctuate including. Here’s a quick recap:
- Use a comma before including when you’re introducing a nonessential phrase.
- Don’t use a comma before including when you’re introducing an essential phrase.
- Use a comma after including when you’re adding an interrupter.
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Place a comma before «including» when introducing an example (or a series of examples) to illustrate what has been recently said.
Place a comma before «including» when introducing a list of examples to illustrate what has been recently said.
I love many Asian countries, including Vietnam, Laos, and Japan.
I love many Asian countries including Vietnam, Laos, and Japan.
Omit a comma before including to convey that what follows define or restricts the main part of the sentence.
To apply for the job, you must submit a résumé including your language skills.
To apply for the job, you must submit a résumé, including your language skills.
«Including your language skills» restricts or defines the type of résumé you need; it is not just an example.
The comma rules for «such as» and «including» are basically the same.
Contents
- 1. Placing a Comma Before ‘Including’
- 2. ‘Including’ Without a Comma
- 3. More Examples
- 4. Conclusion
1. Placing a Comma Before ‘Including’
The introductory word including is typically used to express that what follows is an instance (or are several instances) of what has been said. In this case, including is preceded, but not followed, by a comma.
Rising inflation is impacting a range of areas, including food and energy.
Rising inflation is impacting a range of areas including, food and energy.
Note that if we leave out «food and energy», the meaning of the sentence remains intact. In the example above, including just introduces a list of examples or instances.
If the list of terms that follows «including» is placed in the middle of a sentence, you must add another comma after the list.
Ten people, including two children and six women, were injured in the accident.
Ten people, including two children and six women were injured in the accident.
In sentences like these, for example and including are synonyms. The use of commas before and after «for example», however, is slightly different.
2. ‘Including’ Without a Comma
Look at this sentence:
I chose the project including the contingency plan.
If you remove «including the contingency plan» from the sentence, the meaning changes completely. In other words, you cannot separate the «including» part without changing the meaning. This is why we do not separate «the project» and «including» with a comma.
Therefore, omit the comma if «including» introduces a group of words that are required to identify the main word (or words) of the sentence.
Images including inappropriate content will be removed.
The example above shows that you need to mention «inappropriate content» to identify the type of images the writer is referring to. We are not talking about examples of something in this case.
3. More Examples
The following examples show the use of a comma before «including» to introduce a list of items or add extra information.
- Many Italian dishes, including pizza and pasta, are among the most consumed foods in the world.
- I had to prepare many documents to go to Vietnam, including a visa and a passport.
- Twelve doctors, including two cardiologists, five dermatologists, and three surgeons, attended the symposium.
- I need you to go to the grocery store and buy some food, including rice, pasta, and olive oil.
- Sarah met many interesting people, including novelists, scientists, and engineers.
- I love a broad range of music styles, including hip-hop, house, and dance music.
- Rebecca has traveled to many African countries, including Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia.
These sentences show the use of «including«, without a comma, to restrict or determine the meaning of the sentence.
- Images including inappropriate content are not allowed.
- Dishes including spicy ingredients can cause digestive problems.
- The office required an application including the income level.
- My boss only wants financial reports including charts and graphs.
- A clinical record including blood test results was required by the hospital.
- Please follow community standards and avoid uploading images including nudity.
4. Conclusion
You can follow this strategy to decide whether to place a comma before «including» in a sentence:
- Add a comma before including to introduce a list of examples that illustrate your statement.
- Avoid using a comma when the words that follow including are restrictive or essential to understand the meaning of the sentence.
- Another way to determine if a comma is needed is to mentally replace the word «including» by «for example». If the result still makes sense, add a comma before including.
A Nonrestrictive Clause
A nonrestrictive, or nonessential, clause could easily be removed without changing the meaning of an independent clause or sentence. Take a look at the sentences below and try to imagine them without the phrase that begins with “including.”
- I love tea, including oolong.
- My furniture, including the couch, table, and bookshelf, fits in the new apartment.
- My favorite cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and Honolulu, all have diverse populations.
All of the following sentences still make sense, even with the clauses removed:
- I love tea.
- My furniture fits in the new apartment.
- My favorite cities all have diverse populations.
The nonessential examples act as a descriptive phrase or appositive, providing more information about the noun that precedes them. Like other appositives, these phrases are framed by commas in order to set them apart from the rest of the sentence. A nonessential clause could also be written as a parenthetical or placed between em dashes.
- I love tea (including oolong).
- I love tea—including oolong.
The choice between an em dash, parentheses, or a comma becomes a stylistic decision—all three forms of punctuation serve the same purpose in this context. Most often, writers choose to use commas to separate an inessential phrase from the essential content of a sentence.
A Restrictive Clause
In contrast to the examples above, sometimes the phrase does provide information necessary to the meaning of the sentence. Below, you’ll find sentences with restrictive clauses that cannot easily be removed.
- I turned in the paperwork including the signature page.
- In this typeface, punctuation marks including semicolons, quotation marks, and commas are written with the same little squiggle.
- The proposal including a new city park won more votes.
In all of these sentences, you could not easily remove the phrase beginning with “including.” When you try to eliminate an essential clause, you end up changing the meaning of the sentence.
- I turned in the paperwork.
- In this typeface, punctuation marks are written with the same little squiggle.
- The proposal won more votes.
Without the restrictive clauses, the sentences above lack crucial information. Take the last item, for example. The sentence, “The proposal won more votes,” leaves out crucial information needed to describe the proposal that won. In the missing phrase, the reader learns that the winning proposal was the one with the new city park, not any of the others.
Ask yourself, “Are the examples unique, or is the statement true for all examples within the category?”
Ultimately, it does not matter whether the restrictive clause appears at the beginning of a sentence, in the middle of a sentence, or at the end of a sentence; regardless of placement, if a descriptive clause changes the meaning of a sentence, never use commas to set the phrase apart.
Other Appositive Phrases
A number of other phrases can introduce a comparison, functioning in the same role as the word “including.”
- that is
- in other words
- such as
- for example
- as well as
Like “including,” these phrases may introduce either a restrictive or a nonrestrictive clause. When they introduce an essential description necessary to the meaning of the sentence, the writer should not set the description apart with commas. On the other hand, if these phrases begin an inessential description, commas must be used.
In cases where the sentence could be interpreted in two different ways, the writer may use punctuation to alert the reader to his or her intended meaning. Comma usage suggests that the examples are some of many. Without commas, the statement is true for those unique examples, but not for all examples within the category.
Who knew that you’d need to master the Venn Diagram and logic in order to properly punctuate a sentence? Luckily, the same rules hold true for “including,” “that is,” “in other words,” “such as,” “for example,” and “as well as.”
Sources:
- https://www.monmouth.edu/resources-for-writers/documents/appositives.pdf/
- https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/semi-colons-colons-and-dashes/
- https://medium.com/@Ediket/when-do-you-use-a-comma-before-including-or-such-as-9b3e1b4f7af3
Kari Lisa Johnson
I’m an award-winning playwright with a penchant for wordplay. After earning a perfect score on the Writing SAT, I worked my way through Brown University by moonlighting as a Kaplan Test Prep tutor. I received a BA with honors in Literary Arts (Playwriting)—which gave me the opportunity to study under Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel. In my previous roles as new media producer with Rosetta Stone, director of marketing for global ventures with The Juilliard School, and vice president of digital strategy with Up & Coming Media, I helped develop the voice for international brands. From my home office in Maui, Hawaii, I currently work on freelance and ghostwriting projects.
In many manuscripts, it is necessary to provide examples that clarify the subject of a sentence. Often, these examples are preceded by the phrase ‘such as‘ or the word ‘including.’ The usage of these terms can be confusing, so this tip describes how to properly mention examples in your sentences.
Non-essential examples
On many occasions, the examples preceded by ‘such as’ or ‘including’ are offset with commas. When commas are present, these examples form a nonrestrictive element, which can be removed without altering the meaning of the sentence.
- Many world-renowned athletes, such as Lionel Messi and Michael Phelps, are also among the richest people on Earth.
Essential examples
If the examples are required for a complete understanding of the sentence, then they represent a restrictive element and should not be offset with commas. Please note that ‘including’ is not commonly used to introduce a restrictive element.
- Proteins such as VieA and CdgJ degrade the second messenger cyclic-di-GMP in Vibrio cholerae.
In this example, saying «Proteins degrade … cyclic-di-GMP….» would not convey any useful information.
Other tips
A few other points about ‘such as’ and ‘including’:
Do not use a colon (:) after one of these terms; they are meant to directly introduce the relevant examples. It is acceptable to use a colon following a phrase such as «including the following:» at the end of a complete statement (independent clause). This proposal lays forth new guidelines for several committees, including the following: the scientific program committee, the steering committee, and the membership committee.
- ‘Such as’ or ‘including’ can also be used elsewhere in the sentence (i.e., not associated with the subject) to provide examples. The street featured several new hybrid vehicles, including a Toyota Prius and a Ford Fusion.
- Last, the word ‘like‘ can be used interchangeably with the phrase ‘such as.’ In academic writing, however, ‘like’ should be avoided both because of ambiguity (confusion with the verb ‘to like’) and because the term is informal.
We hope that this post has helped you better understand the usage of ‘such as’ and ‘including’ in academic writing. Please email us with any comments or questions. Best of luck with your research!