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
It is perhaps a work of supererogation for me after the lapse of three and a half centuries to endorse and verify the accuracy of that word picture of the buffalo.
From Collection of Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences by Daughters of the American Revolution. Nebraska
It were no less than supererogation to adduce evidences of the romantic spirit of the age of Shakespeare.
From A History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance With special reference to the influence of Italy in the formation and development of modern classicism by Spingarn, Joel Elias
This is such palpable nonsense that it would be a work of supererogation to prove its absurdity.
From Morals and the Evolution of Man by Nordau, Max Simon
He was not the man to waste his energies upon works of supererogation.
From The Plowshare and the Sword A Tale of Old Quebec by Trevena, John
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.
