excess
Valid in Scrabble
- Scrabble points
- 15
- Words With Friends
- 16
- Letters
- 6
/ˈɛksɛs/
See all 4 pronunciations Show less
/ˈɛksɛs/ · /ɪkˈsɛs/ · /ɛkˈsɛs/ · /əkˈsɛs/
Definition of excess
7 senses · 3 parts of speech · etymology included
noun
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(countable, uncountable)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.”
“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.”
See all 7 definitions Show less
noun
-
(countable, uncountable)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.”
“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.”
-
(countable, uncountable)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.”
-
(countable, uncountable)An act of eating or drinking more than enough.
“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.”
“Fair Angel, thy desire . . . . . . leads to no excess That reaches blame”
- (countable, uncountable)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, countable, uncountable)A condition on an insurance policy by which the insured pays for a part of the claim.
adj
- (not-comparable)More than is normal, necessary or specified.
verb
-
(US, transitive)To declare (an employee) surplus to requirements, such that he or she might not be given work.
“In 2006, I was excessed because my program had to make a few cuts and a new, inexperienced supervisor decided that he couldn’t handle a knowledgeable older teacher so he removed me.”
Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.
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.
Words you can make from excess
17 playable · top: EXECS (14 pts)
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See every word you can make from a set of letters that includes excess, or browse word lists you can mine for high-scoring plays.