Excessively

How to spell excessively

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce excessively

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does excessively mean?

1. adverbTo a degree that is far greater than is normal, necessary, or proper.

Excessively in a sentence

• The hotel charged us excessively for a single night's parking.

• The report was excessively long, repeating the same figures on every page.

Where does excessively come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb excedere, meaning 'to go out' or 'to go beyond', built from ex- 'out, beyond' and cedere 'to go or yield', the same root that gives us 'proceed', 'recede', and 'concede'. From excedere came the noun excessus, literally 'a going beyond', and the adjective form that English took up through Old French as 'excessive' in the late 1300s, meaning 'going beyond what is normal or proper'. The adverb 'excessively' was formed in English by adding the familiar -ly ending, and it has long carried the sense of 'to an immoderate or extreme degree'. The spelling trap lives in the middle: two letters c then a double s, because the Latin cess element already doubles the s, and writers often drop one. Remembering the shared family with 'success' and 'access', which also keep the doubled c and s, helps lock the spelling in place.

How the word is built

• ex- (out, beyond)
• cess (go, yield, from Latin cedere)
• -ive (tending to)
• -ly (adverb suffix)