as in surplus
the state or an instance of going beyond what is usual, proper, or needed
a mall with a surplusage of stores all selling the same lines of clothing
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Recent Examples of surplusage
In everyday speech, in legal texts and even in translations of Genesis, one person’s surplusage may be another person’s way of dealing with inevitable trade-offs between clarity and concision.
—
Sam Bray, Washington Post, 25 June 2017
Sam Bray, Washington Post, 25 June 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for surplusage
Noun
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Delaware tops the list, where mortgage-free retirees have an annual surplus of $1,764.—
Aliss Higham,
MSNBC Newsweek,
24 Sep. 2025
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One tenth of the remaining surplus will be used to form a national cobalt reserve, while the rest, Tshisekedi said, would be handed to small-scale miners.—
semafor.com,
semafor.com,
24 Sep. 2025
Noun
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To some market watchers, Nvidia’s latest deals feel all-too-similar to the excesses of past technology booms.—
Jeremy Kahn,
Fortune,
28 Sep. 2025
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While the first game trafficked in elegant neatness, Hades II is practically bursting at the seams with excess.—
Christopher Cruz,
Rolling Stone,
27 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Surplusage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/surplusage. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
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