supererogation
Britishnoun
-
the performance of work in excess of that required
-
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
Where, however, the money is money which they are glad to get in any case, the legal tender quality is a matter of supererogation.
From The Value of Money by Benjamin M. Anderson
That no one had done so was probably due in most part to an impression that to carry such information were work of supererogation....
From Linda Lee, Incorporated A Novel by Louis Joseph Vance
In the animal kingdom, a surreptitious and supposititious supererogation.
From The Roycroft Dictionary Concocted by Ali Baba and the Bunch on Rainy Days. by Elbert Hubbard
Henry A. Clapp has recently shown this so clearly that it may seem a work of supererogation to again discuss the matter.
From Time in the Play of Hamlet by Edward P. Vining
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.
