Excerpt length
Appearance → Customize → Blog → Excerpt length. A number of words, 5 to 200, in steps of 5.
The control only appears while Post text is set to Excerpt — nothing is trimmed when the listing is printing whole posts.
Leave it empty
Empty is the default, and it lets each display mode use a length that fits its box:
| Display | Words |
|---|---|
| Stacked | 60 |
| List | 35 |
| Grid | 20 |
The excerpt sits in a full reading column in stacked, in 62% of a row in list, and in a card that might be a sixth of the page in grid. One number cannot be right for all three, so by default there are three numbers.
Fill it in
A value here overrides all of them — one length everywhere, regardless of display.
Reasons to:
- You switch display modes and want the listing to read the same either way.
- The default is wrong for your writing. If your posts open with a long scene-setting sentence, 20 words in a grid card is half a thought; 35 finishes it.
- You want a deliberately short teaser — 12 or 15 words is close to a subtitle and looks tidy under short titles.
Hand-written excerpts are never trimmed
If a post has something in the Excerpt box in the editor sidebar, that text is used exactly as written whatever this setting says. This is the escape hatch for any post where the automatic cut lands badly, and it is worth using on your best posts.
To reveal the box in the block editor: Options (⋮) → Preferences → Panels, or open the Post tab in the sidebar and look for Excerpt.
What ends the excerpt
A trimmed excerpt ends with an ellipsis and a Continue reading link. Turn the link off under Blog → Display “Continue reading” link and the ellipsis stands alone.
The link’s text includes the post title for screen readers, so a listing does not present twenty identical “Continue reading” links.