ex- vs out-

ex-

prefix
  • outside 

  • former, but still living (almost always used with a hyphen) 

  • out of 

  • Lacking. 

out-

prefix
  • Beyond 

  • Toward the outside of, away from 

  • External to, on the outside of 

  • Forms verbs with the sense of surpassing or exceeding the prefixed word. This construction is productive. 

  • Greater than 

  • Completely 

How often have the words ex- and out- occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )