as in excesses
the state or an instance of going beyond what is usual, proper, or needed
we have a surplus of plastic knives, but we're short on forks and spoons for the picnic
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Recent Examples of surpluses
But Connecticut has used those surpluses to build reserves and whittle down a considerable pension debt that still exceeds $33 billion, according to Lamont’s budget office.
—
Keith M. Phaneuf, Hartford Courant, 7 Jan. 2026
The program ended in 1943 as the war drew to an end, and there were fewer surpluses.
—Zach Halaschak, The Washington Examiner, 24 Nov. 2025
Consider, for example, a government that runs surpluses by pursuing policies that effectively subsidize manufacturing at the expense of households.
—Michael Pettis, Foreign Affairs, 17 Nov. 2025
Economists warn that solutions that worked in the past—such as the post-World War II debt reduction or the 1990s surpluses—are unavailable today.
—Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 13 Nov. 2025
Designed to combat both hunger and agricultural surpluses during the Great Depression, the program used orange stamps for general food purchases and blue stamps for surplus items.
—Hannah Parry, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 Nov. 2025
The pot of money has built sizable reserves due to annual surpluses and an arrangement for the fund to share in a portion of tariff revenue, Super added.
—Max Zahn, ABC News, 3 Nov. 2025
In this approach, BESS handles rapid fluctuations within milliseconds, absorbing short-term surpluses or deficits.
—Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 5 Oct. 2025
What regulated actual Southern credit markets, when bondpeople were used as collateral for loans, were surpluses from slave labor, not short-term fluctuations in slave prices.
—Literary Hub, 22 Sep. 2025
Keith M. Phaneuf, Hartford Courant, 7 Jan. 2026
The program ended in 1943 as the war drew to an end, and there were fewer surpluses.
—Zach Halaschak, The Washington Examiner, 24 Nov. 2025
Consider, for example, a government that runs surpluses by pursuing policies that effectively subsidize manufacturing at the expense of households.
—Michael Pettis, Foreign Affairs, 17 Nov. 2025
Economists warn that solutions that worked in the past—such as the post-World War II debt reduction or the 1990s surpluses—are unavailable today.
—Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 13 Nov. 2025
Designed to combat both hunger and agricultural surpluses during the Great Depression, the program used orange stamps for general food purchases and blue stamps for surplus items.
—Hannah Parry, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 Nov. 2025
The pot of money has built sizable reserves due to annual surpluses and an arrangement for the fund to share in a portion of tariff revenue, Super added.
—Max Zahn, ABC News, 3 Nov. 2025
In this approach, BESS handles rapid fluctuations within milliseconds, absorbing short-term surpluses or deficits.
—Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 5 Oct. 2025
What regulated actual Southern credit markets, when bondpeople were used as collateral for loans, were surpluses from slave labor, not short-term fluctuations in slave prices.
—Literary Hub, 22 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for surpluses
Noun
-
Frank set about reining in their attacking excesses.—
Phil Hay,
New York Times,
3 Nov. 2025
-
But Septime Webre’s choreography is supposed to have the air of wild and sometimes frenzied social dancing, of Charlestons and Fox Trots and Black Bottoms, of indulging the glorious excesses of the 1920s before the greedier side of the American Dream comes crashing down a few years later.—
David Lyman,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
30 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
The buildup can also clog sewage systems, leading to overflows that send raw sewage into rivers, lakes, and oceans.—
Moná Thomas,
PEOPLE,
28 Oct. 2025
-
Officials at the Water Reclamation Authority are pursuing new goals after the utility was officially released last year from a pair of longstanding legal agreements that required the utility to address sewer overflows, leading to major investments across the system.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
22 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Surpluses.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/surpluses. Accessed 9 Jan. 2026.
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