# excess
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English exces (“excess, ecstasy”), from Old French exces, from Latin excessus (“a going out, loss of self-possession”), from excedere, excessum (“to go out, go beyond”). See exceed.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈɛksɛs/, /ɪkˈsɛs/, /ɛkˈsɛs/, /əkˈsɛs/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛs

### Noun

excess (countable and uncountable, plural excesses)
* The state of surpassing or going beyond a limit; the state of being beyond sufficiency, necessity, or duty; more than what is usual or proper.
    Synonyms: overage, superabundance, surplus; see also Thesaurus:excess
    Antonyms: deficiency, lack, shortage
    The excess of heavy water was given away to the neighbouring country.
** c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, […] Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
** c. 1690, William Walsh, "Jealosy", in The Poetical Works of William Walsh (1797), page 19 (Google preview):
    That kills me with excess of grief, this with excess of joy.
** 2020 July 29, Paul Stephen, “A new collaboration centred on New Street”, in Rail, page 54:[...] after the original Victorian station was demolished and then entombed in concrete in the 1960s, Birmingham New Street became a byword for the worst excesses of the much-loathed Brutalist architecture so widely used to reconstruct inner-city post-war Britain.
* The degree or amount by which one thing or number exceeds another; remainder.
    The difference between two numbers is the excess of one over the other.
* An act of eating or drinking more than enough.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ephesians 5:18:And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.
** 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:Fair Angel, thy desire . . . . . . leads to no excess That reaches blame
* (geometry) Spherical excess, the amount by which the sum of the three angles of a spherical triangle exceeds two right angles. The spherical excess is proportional to the area of the triangle.
* (British, insurance) A condition on an insurance policy by which the insured pays for a part of the claim.
    Synonym: (US, insurance) deductible

#### Derived terms

* in excess of
* sexcess
* spherical excess
* to excess

#### Related terms

* exceed
* excessive

#### Translations
### Adjective

excess (not comparable)
* More than is normal, necessary or specified.
    Synonyms: offcut, surplus

#### Derived terms

* excess baggage
* excess kurtosis
* excess return
* nonexcess
* refractory anaemia with excess blasts

#### Translations
### Verb

excess (third-person singular simple present excesses, present participle excessing, simple past and past participle excessed)
* (US, transitive) To declare (an employee) surplus to requirements, such that he or she might not be given work.
** 2008 May 3, “When New York Teachers Don’t Teach”, in New York Times‎:In 2006, I was excessed because my program had to make a few cuts and a new, inexperienced supervisor decided that he couldn’t handle a knowledgeable older teacher so he removed me.

#### See also

* usury

#### Further reading

* “excess”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “excess”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.