superfluity

American  

[soo-per-floo-i-tee] / ˌsu pərˈflu ɪ ti /

noun

• superfluities
  plural

1. the state of being superfluous.

2. a superabundant or excessive amount.

3. something superfluous, as a luxury.

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superfluity British  

/ ˌsuːpəˈfluːɪtɪ /

noun

1. the condition of being superfluous

2. a quantity or thing that is in excess of what is needed

3. a thing that is not needed

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• superfluities
  plural

Etymology

Origin of superfluity

1350–1400; Middle English superfluite < Old French < Latin superfluitās. See superfluous, -ity

Explanation

A superfluity is an excess or abundance. When you encounter superfluity, there's too much of something. When something is superfluous, it's unnecessary or redundant: there's already enough of it. Likewise, superfluity is too much of something. If your friend is a shopoholic and spends all of her time at the mall, you probably encounter superfluity in her closet — since she has more clothes than she will ever wear. The Latin root word is superfluus, which is used figuratively to mean "unnecessary," but is literally "overflowing."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

superfluity superfluities

Each element beyond the central character study, which is itself only shallowly conceived, ends up another superfluity in a storm of them.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

Though much of the action is muddled by a superfluity of angles and edits, Sten looks very good whenever we get more than a glimpse of her in motion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

How refreshingly meta, then, that “The Devil Wears Prada 2” — a film that seemingly had no discernible reason to exist other than to make money — directly addresses its own superfluity.

From Salon ● May 1, 2026

A group of crows is a murder; pandas, an embarrassment; nuns, a superfluity — a term that dates to the Middle Ages, when nunneries were overcrowded, lice-ridden and destitute.

From New York Times ● Sep. 12, 2021

An overflowing fullness; ample sufficiency; great plenty; profusion; copious supply; superfluity; wealth: Ð strictly applicable to quantity only, but sometimes used of number.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Noah Webster

And Kuo’s sluggish direction, alongside the superfluities of Shekar’s script and the cast’s aerobic attempts to breathe life into inconsequential characters and static scenes, makes the two-hour show feel interminable.

From New York Times ● Sep. 16, 2020

But now it feels more like a costly necessity, one whose exorbitant price tag is thinly justified by superfluities like face recognition, wireless charging, and a snazzier camera.

From Slate ● Jan. 3, 2019

A good novel is art’s closest equivalent to a human being—by nature a concoction of surprises, contradictions, and superfluities.

From Slate ● Dec. 23, 2015

Of course, I didn’t bother with superfluities like gold pieces or twenty-sided dice, but I did think upon the same factors.

From Salon ● Dec. 8, 2012

As to his successors through gift inter vivos or testament, they are not bound to give the superfluities as an alms, since the church precept was for the cleric himself.

From Moral Theology A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities by Charles Jerome Callan