Surplus

How to spell surplus

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce surplus

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does surplus mean?

1. nounAn amount that remains after needs or demands have been met; an excess.
2. adjectiveBeing more than what is required or used; left over.

Surplus in a sentence

• noun

  The council reported a budget surplus at the end of the financial year.

• adjective

  The warehouse stored surplus stock that the shops could not sell.

• noun

  The farm sold its grain surplus to a neighbouring co-operative.

• adjective

  The army auctioned off surplus equipment after the exercise ended.

Where does surplus come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin superplus, a compound of super meaning 'over' or 'above' and plus meaning 'more', so the literal idea is 'something more than is needed'. It passed into medieval Latin and then into Old French as surplus, where the super- had already been worn down to the smoother sur-, and English adopted it in the late 1300s. From the start it carried the sense of an amount remaining after needs have been met, whether of money, goods, or supplies. The same sur- prefix, meaning 'over and above', survives in everyday words like surcharge, surname, and surface. The spelling trap is partly that hidden plus: writers know the everyday word 'plus', so the ending stays as -plus rather than the -pluss or -plis that the ear might suggest.

How the word is built

• sur- (over, above, from Latin super)
• plus (more)