Remove Latin characters from text in Excel

Detecting the presence of Latin letters in a cell is easy. Removing them cleanly is trickier because Excel has no single built-in command to strip an entire alphabet at once. Below are practical ways to remove any Latin characters (A–Z, a–z) from cells — from a quick replace to robust formulas that work on modern Excel and earlier versions.

Remove Latin letters with find & replace (quick and manual)

The most basic approach is to run 26 (or 52 with case) replacements: replace A with empty, B with empty, … a with empty, b with empty, and so on. It’s slow on large ranges, but it has two pros: cells change in place (no helper columns), and you can record a macro once and reuse it.

Microsoft 365 / Excel 2021 — dynamic-array formulas

These two options use modern dynamic functions like SEQUENCE, MID, SEARCH, IF, CONCAT, and LEN. Enter them normally — no Ctrl+Shift+Enter.

Remove letters and collapse where they were

=CONCAT(IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(MID(A1;SEQUENCE(LEN(A1));1);"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"));"";
MID(A1;SEQUENCE(LEN(A1));1)))

How it works. The formula scans each character of A1, checks if it’s in the Latin alphabet, and concatenates only the characters that are not Latin.

Replace letters with whitespace and trim

=TRIM(CONCAT(IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(MID(A1;SEQUENCE(LEN(A1));1);"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"));" ";
MID(A1;SEQUENCE(LEN(A1));1))))

What’s different. Instead of dropping letters outright, it temporarily places a single space where each Latin letter was, then TRIM cleans up double spaces. Useful when letters appear inside tokens you want to separate.

Excel 2007–2019 — classic nested substitute (works everywhere)

Older Excel versions don’t have SEQUENCE or dynamic arrays. Use a single “mega-formula” that removes every letter via nested SUBSTITUTE. It’s long but reliable and compatible.

=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1;"A";"");"B";"");"C";"");"D";"");"E";"");"F";"");"G";"");"H";"");"I";"");"J";"");"K";"");"L";"");"M";"");"N";"");"O";"");"P";"");"Q";"");"R";"");"S";"");"T";"");"U";"");"V";"");"W";"");"X";"");"Y";"");"Z";"");"a";"");"b";"");"c";"");"d";"");"e";"");"f";"");"g";"");"h";"");"i";"");"j";"");"k";"");"l";"");"m";"");"n";"");"o";"");"p";"");"q";"");"r";"");"s";"");"t";"");"u";"");"v";"");"w";"");"x";"");"y";"");"z";"")

Notes. This is case-sensitive, so it includes 52 substitutions (A–Z and a–z). Place it in a helper column; once you’re happy with the result, copy → paste values if you want to overwrite the original data.

Array formula note (CSE vs. dynamic arrays)

• Microsoft 365 and Excel 2021: the two CONCAT/SEQUENCE formulas are dynamic-array formulas. Just press Enter. Do not use Ctrl+Shift+Enter.
• Excel 2007–2019 (and earlier): use the nested SUBSTITUTE formula above. It’s a standard formula and does not require Ctrl+Shift+Enter.

Remove Latin characters in 2 clicks with !SEMTools

!SEMTools can remove Latin letters across selected ranges in place. It also offers regex-based deletion if you prefer pattern logic (see regular expressions in Excel). If you actually need to remove whole words that contain Latin characters, use the dedicated tools: delete words and delete cells utilities cover those cases.

This post is also available in RU.