Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The quality or condition of being superfluous.
  • noun Something superfluous.
  • noun Overabundance; excess.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A quantity that is superfluous or in excess; a greater quantity than is wanted; superabundance; redundancy.
  • noun That which is in excess of what is wanted; especially, something used for show or luxury rather than for comfort or from necessity; something that could easily be dispensed with.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A greater quantity than is wanted; superabundance
  • noun The state or quality of being superfluous; excess.
  • noun Something beyond what is needed; something which serves for show or luxury.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The quality or state of being superfluous; in excess or overabundance.
  • noun Something superfluous, as a luxury.
  • noun rare Collective noun for a group of nuns.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun extreme excess

Etymologies

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Examples

  • And so-called superfluity is agreeable and usefully disposed of.

    Unnatural Death Sayers, Dorothy L.Lord Peter 03 1988

  • _Mercury_ is found in one, the _Sulphur_ in another, and the _Salt_ in a third; yet I tell you, this is only to be understood of their superfluity, which is found to abound most in each, and may be used and prepared divers ways particularly with profit, both for Physick and transmutation of Metals; but the Universal, which is the supreamest

    Of Natural and Supernatural Things Also of the first Tincture, Root, and Spirit of Metals and Minerals, how the same are Conceived, Generated, Brought forth, Changed, and Augmented. Basilius Valentinus

  • When to that is added the mistake that my superfluity is the cause of your deficiency, it becomes intelligible why you and those who sympathise with you in your sufferings should call for division of property -- absolutely equal division.

    Freeland A Social Anticipation Theodor Hertzka 1884

  • It is worthy of remark that salt diminishes, in a very striking degree, the pungency of the aji; and it is still more remarkable that the use of the latter, which in a manner may be called a superfluity, has no injurious effect on the digestive organs.

    Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests Johann Jakob von Tschudi 1853

  • And when the intestinal absorbents act too violently, as when too great quantities of fluid have been drank, the urinary absorbents invert their motions to carry off the superfluity, which is a new circumstance of association, and a temporary diabetes supervenes.

    Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • 'insistency,' and which many would call superfluity, and which _is_ superfluous in a sense -- _you_ can pardon, because you understand.

    The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 Robert Browning 1850

  • Besides, as the body gets warm with exercise in walking, this air, by sucking out the humours from the frame, diminishes their superabundance, and disperses and thus reduces that superfluity which is more than the body can bear.

    The Ten Books on Architecture Vitruvius Pollio

  • It would be a work of social regeneration to convince the public of the economy they might effect by such practises, to show them that elegance and propriety in themselves cost nothing -- nay, more, that they demand simplicity and moderation, and therefore exclude all that superfluity which is so expensive.

    Spontaneous Activity in Education Maria Montessori 1911

  • Thus there was a "superfluity" of about ten days in every lunar year, or about one lunation in every third year; not to mention that a "mansion" was about a day longer than a lunation, and that therefore the husbandman was liable to be thrown out of his reckoning.

    Ancient China Simplified Edward Harper Parker 1887

  • Sheep have in their fleeces a superfluity which is not for them, and which still grows and renews, as it were to invite men to shear them every year.

    The Existence of God Fran��ois de Salignac de la Mothe- F��nelon 1683

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