excess
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English
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.
Pronunciation
Noun
excess (countable and uncountable, plural excesses)
- 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.
- The excess of heavy water was given away to the neighbouring country.
- c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
- To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet, […]
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
- c. 1690, William Walsh, "Jealosy", in The Poetical Works of William Walsh (1797), page 19 (Google preview):
- That kills me with excess of grief, this with excess of joy.
- 2020 July 29, Paul Stephen, “A new collaboration centred on New Street”, in Rail, page 54:
- [...] 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 degree or amount by which one thing or number exceeds another; remainder.
- The difference between two numbers is the excess of one over the other.
- An act of eating or drinking more than enough.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Ephesians 5:18:
- And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:
- Fair Angel, thy desire . . .
. . . leads to no excess
That reaches blame
- (geometry) 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.
- (British, insurance) A condition on an insurance policy by which the insured pays for a part of the claim.
Synonyms
- (state of surpassing limits): See Thesaurus:excess
- (US, insurance): deductible
Antonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
state of surpassing limits
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degree by which one thing exceeds another
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undue indulgence of the appetite
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geometry: spherical excess
insurance condition
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Adjective
excess (not comparable)
Derived terms
Translations
more than is normal, necessary or specified
Verb
excess (third-person singular simple present excesses, present participle excessing, simple past and past participle excessed)
- (US, transitive) To declare (an employee) surplus to requirements, such that he or she might not be given work.
Translations
Excessive
See also
Further reading
- “excess”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “excess”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.