superfluity

[ soo-per-floo-i-tee ]

noun

, plural su·per·flu·i·ties.

1. the state of being superfluous.
2. a superabundant or excessive amount.
3. something superfluous, as a luxury.

superfluity

/ 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of superfluity¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of superfluity¹

C14: from Old French superfluité, via Late Latin from Latin superfluus superfluous

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

In 1899, Thorstein Veblen’s landmark socio-economic study, “The Theory of the Leisure Class,” showed how free time and superfluity — what we now call luxury — conferred status, or “reputability,” on the wealthiest individuals in late 19th-century America.

From New York Times

But, a little paradoxically, the collection is most valuable when it’s proving its own superfluity: The best material is what made it onto the completed record.

From New York Times

The novel renders the dailiness of life for a cloistered superfluity — no one woman matters more than any other, and plot is done away with; there’s no tidy narrative arc or chain of cause and effect.

From New York Times

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