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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Abiy has said the dam will improve access to electricity for the almost half the population who had none as recently as 2022, and export the surplus to the region.—
CNN Money,
CNN Money,
9 Sep. 2025
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There is even a world in which Winnipeg’s best play is to forget about its surplus of veteran defencemen, giving Salomonsson third-pairing minutes as soon as this season.—
Murat Ates,
New York Times,
8 Sep. 2025
Noun
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In 1956, long before those flashy rhinestone jumpsuits, the infamous Jungle Room, and all the Vegas excess, Elvis was just a handsome, super-talented guy playing high schools and military bases along the Gulf coast.—
Josh Miller,
Southern Living,
14 Sep. 2025
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Panday plays a convincingly gruff tortured artist alongside Padda’s struggling ingenue, and most of the screen time is devoted to their pairing instead of introducing tertiary excess.—
Proma Khosla,
IndieWire,
13 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Surplusage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/surplusage. Accessed 16 Sep. 2025.
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