Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Exceeding a fixed, prescribed, or standard number; extra.
- adjective Exceeding the required or desired number or amount; superfluous: synonym: superfluous.
- noun One that is in excess of the regular, necessary, or usual number.
- noun An actor without a speaking part, as one who appears in a crowd scene.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Exceeding a number stated or prescribed: as, a supernumerary officer in a regiment.
- Exceeding a necessary or usual number.
- noun A person or thing beyond the number stated, or beyond what is necessary or usual; especially, a person not formally a member of a regular body or staff of officials or employees, but retained or employed to act as an assistant or substitute in case of necessity.
- noun Specifically— A military officer attached to a corps or arm of the service where no vacancy exists. Such an officer receives, in the United States army, the rank of brevet second lieutenant, or additional second lieutenant.
- noun Theat., one not belonging to the regular company, who appears on the stage, but has no lines to speak. Often colloquially abbreviated super and supe.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Exceeding the number stated or prescribed.
- adjective Exceeding a necessary, usual, or required number or quality; superfluous.
- noun A person or thing beyond the number stated.
- noun A person or thing beyond what is necessary or usual; especially, a person employed not for regular service, but only to fill the place of another in case of need; specifically, in theaters, a person who is not a regular actor, but is employed to appear in a stage spectacle.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
civil designation for somebody who works in a group, association or public office, without forming part of the regular staff; those distinguished fromnumerary . (For example, supernumerary judges are those who help the regular judges when there is a surplus amount of work.) - noun An
extra orwalk-on in a film or play;spear-carrier . - adjective
Extra ;beyond thestandard orprescribed amount . - adjective Greater in
number than. - adjective
Beyond what isnecessary .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a minor actor in crowd scenes
- adjective more than is needed, desired, or required
- noun a person serving no apparent function
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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For as for that part which seemeth supernumerary, which is prophecy, it is but divine history, which hath that prerogative over human, as the narration may be before the fact as well as after.
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Another supernumerary was the joiner, a rating only carried in the seventeenth century on great ships with much fancy work about the poop.
On the Spanish Main Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. John Masefield 1922
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The existence of the supernumerary was a puzzle, but Olbers solved it for the moment by suggesting that Ceres and Pallas, as he called his captive, might be fragments of a quondam planet, shattered by internal explosion or by the impact of a comet.
A History of Science: in Five Volumes. Volume III: Modern development of the physical sciences 1904
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For as for that part which seemeth supernumerary, which is prophecy, it is but divine history, which hath that prerogative over human, as the narration may be before the fact as well as after.
The Advancement of Learning Francis Bacon 1593
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The rare phenomenon is known as a supernumerary phantom limb.
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Fraser-Moleketi said the word "supernumerary" was no longer used by government.
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The first was the acceptance of "supernumerary" religious, that is of a larger number than the resources of the convent warranted; hence it was but just that the amount required for their maintenance should be demanded of them.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 5: Diocese-Fathers of Mercy 1840-1916 1913
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It will be noticed that a point with which Ellen Key and the leaders of the new German woman's movement specially concern themselves is the affectional needs of the "supernumerary" woman and the legitimation of her children.
The Task of Social Hygiene Havelock Ellis 1899
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Doctors call the extra appendages "supernumerary" body parts and these can be found on some famous people in history.
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I see many writers here consider a two thirds supernumerary requirement to raise any taxes as a ‘problem’.
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