Limiting words on excerpt but only on one section/page?

Hi there,

I have the following which displays some latest posts on my homepage:

<?php
// Define our WP Query Parameters
$the_query = new WP_Query( 'posts_per_page=5' ); ?>
  
<?php
// Start our WP Query
while ($the_query -> have_posts()) : $the_query -> the_post();
// Display the Post Title with Hyperlink
?>
    
 
 
<?php the_category(" "); ?>
    <div class="icon-date"><?php echo get_the_date( 'Y-m-d' ); ?></div>
<div><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></div>
  
<div><?php
// Display the Post Excerpt
the_excerpt(__('(more…)')); ?></div>
 
     
<?php
// Repeat the process and reset once it hits the limit
endwhile;
wp_reset_postdata();
?>

What I would like to do is to limit the number of words in the excerpt but only on this section/homepage so other areas of the website aren’t affected.

How would I do this? I have found there is a way to generally do it, but not just per this section.

Any ideas would be great, thanks!