supererogation
Britishnoun
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the performance of work in excess of that required
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RC Church supererogatory prayers, devotions, etc
Explanation
Supererogation is a fancy way of saying "doing more than you're expected or obligated to." If your school requires that all students perform ten hours of community service, but you volunteer at the soup kitchen for twenty hours, that's supererogation. The Late Latin supererogatio means "a payment in addition," from super, "above or over" and erogare, "pay out." In English, this word was originally used in a religious context, for good works that go beyond what God requires. Today, supererogation typically describes an ethical or religious decision to act beyond what's required for being a good person: "Donating twenty percent of their income to charity is an act of supererogation."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
For any organization to have notified him of his nomination would have been supererogation.
From Time Magazine Archive
This, besides being martyrdom, is a work of supererogation, as the fruit is nicer fresh, and to buy it for the sake of keeping it is absurd, as it can but be eaten once.
From Household Organization by Florence Caddy
Thus, discord differs from disagreement about matters of supererogation.
From Moral Theology A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities by Charles Jerome Callan
To "prove" the "equation of exchange," however, is, first, a work of supererogation, and, second, in no sense a proof of the quantity theory.
From The Value of Money by Benjamin M. Anderson
The subsequent adventures of Palmerin bear such a strong likeness to those already related of him as to render their recital a work of supererogation.
From Legends & Romances of Spain by Lewis Spence
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
