superfluity

American  

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

noun

plural

superfluities

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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Etymology

Origin of superfluity

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

Example Sentences

Thankfully, YA novelist Robin Wasserman’s 2016 adult debut, “Girls on Fire,” boasts a superfluity of violently intense female friendship to tide us over until Season 3.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 19, 2023

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

Under low light, these faded, wispy clippings from the cutting-room floor suggest a superfluity of ideas that might have supplied a lifetime of inspiration to other artists.

From Washington Post • Oct. 18, 2019

So much gist, in fact, that it raises the question: Can there be such an abundance of gist that at some point it ceases to be gist and starts being superfluity?

From Slate • May 6, 2019

Rankness affords another example where superfluity of water is concerned, though it does not involve simply this, because the plant may also contain excessive quantities of nitrogenous and mineral matters taken up by the roots.

From Disease in Plants by Ward, H. Marshall