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
To attempt a sketch of the talents, genius, and virtues of Dr. Chalmers, would be a work of supererogation.
From Sketches of Reforms and Reformers, of Great Britain and Ireland by Stanton, Henry B.
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 Vining, Edward P.
Black Mazzard did what was a work of supererogation as he encountered Bart’s eye—he scowled, his face being villainous enough without.
From Commodore Junk by Fenn, George Manville
Every man feels that he is bigger than his job, and he is all the time doing what theologians call 'works of supererogation.'
From Atlantic Classics, Second Series by Addams, Jane
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.
