excess
/ˈɛksɛs/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.21 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The state of surpassing or going beyond a limit; the state of being beyond sufficiency, necessity, or duty; more than what is usual or proper.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The degree or amount by which one thing or number exceeds another; remainder.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Spherical excess, the amount by which the sum of the three angles of a spherical triangle exceeds two right angles. The spherical excess is proportional to the area of the triangle.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The excess of heavy water was given away to the neighbouring country."
- "I leaped up in an excess of enthusiasm."
- "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, […] Is wasteful and ridiculous excess."
- "That kills me with excess of grief, this with excess of joy."
- "[...] after the original Victorian station was demolished and then entombed in concrete in the 1960s, Birmingham New Street became a byword for the worst excesses of the much-loathed Brutalist architecture so widely used to reconstruct inner-city post-war Britain."
- "The difference between two numbers is the excess of one over the other."
Etymology
From Middle English exces (“excess, ecstasy”), from Old French exces, from Latin excessus (“a going out, loss of self-possession”), from excedere, excessum (“to go out, go beyond”). See exceed.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: exces, excessus
Usage
- Countable
- Uncountable
- British usage
- American usage
- Transitive verb