surplus

UK/ˈsɜːpləs/US/ˈsɝˌplʌs/

nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,929 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: surpluses

A surplus is more than is needed. A budget surplus, sell the surplus, surplus to requirements.

In public finance a surplus is the opposite of a deficit and means taking in more than you spend. Surplus to requirements is the polite phrase for somebody about to lose their job. Army surplus is the trade in kit the forces no longer want.

Definitions of surplus

1nounsurplusMore than is needed.C1
“The farm grew a surplus of apples this year, so they gave some to the neighbours.”

surplus is an excess.

Where it comes from

Old French surplus means what is left over — sur, over, plus plus, more, from Latin.

Proto-Indo-European
*pleh₁-
Middle French
surplus
Middle English
surplus
English, today
surplus

From Middle English surplus, from Middle French surplus. Compare French surplus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

surplus in the wild

As of 2016, about 60 out of 200 countries have a trade surplus.
Balance of trade
The world's largest trade surpluses are held by China, Germany, and Singapore, while the largest trade deficits are held by the United States, United Kingdom, and India.
Balance of trade
Systems that use the Gregory method for surplus vote transfers are strictly non-random.
Single transferable vote
A positive balance is called a government budget surplus, and a negative balance is a government budget deficit.
Government budget balance
Military surplus is goods, usually materiel, that are sold or otherwise disposed of when held in excess or are no longer needed by the military.
Military surplus

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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