Loading page
say it: SUR-pluhs
surplus is a noun and adjective meaning "a quantity much larger than is needed". It is pronounced /ˈsɝpləs/ — SUR-pluhs. It carries 2 recorded senses.
a quantity much larger than is needed
more than is needed, desired, or required
“trying to lose excess weight”
“found some extra change lying on the dresser”
“yet another book on heraldry might be thought redundant”
“skills made redundant by technological advance”
“sleeping in the spare room”
“supernumerary ornamentation”
“it was supererogatory of her to gloat”
“delete superfluous (or unnecessary) words”
“extra ribs as well as other supernumerary internal parts”
“surplus cheese distributed to the needy”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for surplus come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.