supernumerary

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A person who works in a group, association, or public office without forming part of the regular staff (the numerary).

   The judge was a supernumerary, helping the regular judges whenever there was a surplus amount of work.

2. 2
   noun

   An extra or walk-on, often non-speaking, in a film or play; a spear carrier.

   [A] minor actor or supernumerary often has a better opportunity to watch great actors than the great actors themselves.

3. 3
   noun

   Something which is beyond the prescribed or standard amount or number.

   On each side the glass hung one of the large engravings; another over the secretary, facing the window, and the fourth, which for some time seemed a supernumerary, over the door.

4. 4
   noun

   An animal which has not formed a pair bond and is therefore single.

   The best evidence so far that social supernumeraries are physically capable of bettering their lot concerns not rodents but birds.

From Late Latin supernumerarius (“extra soldier added to a legion; supernumerary”), from super (“above; beyond”) + numerus (“number; collection, quantity”) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns or numerals). The word is analysable as super- + numeral + -ary.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images