Word.ws English Dictionary

supererogatory

/suːpəɹɛˈɹɒɡətəɹi/

supererogatory adjective: pertaining to supererogation; doing more than is required.

Adjective

supererogatory (comparative more supererogatory, superlative most supererogatory)

  1. Pertaining to supererogation; doing more than is required.
    • They passed into the ancient shipyard which lay beyond, and which was now a mere vague, grass-grown approach to the waterside, bestrewn with a few remnants of supererogatory timber.1885–1886, Henry James, The Bostonians […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 16 February 1886, →OCLC
    • "In now you come," she ordered, "and we make love." That seemed supererogatory to David Jones, who, under the gaze of the painted deer, got in there and did as he was told.1989, Anthony Burgess, “Un”, in Any Old Iron, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press, Pocket Books, 1990, →ISBN, page 20
  2. Of a deed or action, morally benevolent and exceeding the strict requirement of God.

supererogatory meaning in Tamil

supererogatory in Tamil

கடமை தாண்டிய மீநலத்தன்மையுடைய, தேவைக்கு மேற்பட்ட, தவிர்க்கக்கூடிய, மிகையான, அவசியமற்ற

Examples of supererogatory in a sentence

  • It is, for example, not clear whether “love thy enemy” is a precept or a supererogatory counsel.2002, David Heyd, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
  • It [capitalism] increasingly deploys not just bureaucratic repression but an invested, overt, supererogatory sadism.2022, China Miéville, chapter 6, in A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto, →OCLC:

Forms of supererogatory

comparativemore supererogatory
superlativemost supererogatory

Origin of supererogatory

From Latin superērogātōrius (“supererogatory”), from superērogātiō (“payment in addition”), from superērogō (“pay out over and above”), from super (“above”) + ērogō (“pay out, expend”); from ex (“out of, from”) + rogō (“ask; request”).

Words formed from supererogatory

Questions about supererogatory

What does supererogatory mean?
Supererogatory means pertaining to supererogation; doing more than is required.
What is supererogatory in Tamil?
Supererogatory in Tamil is கடமை தாண்டிய மீநலத்தன்மையுடைய, தேவைக்கு மேற்பட்ட, தவிர்க்கக்கூடிய. See Supererogatory meaning in Tamil.
How do you use supererogatory in a sentence?
It is, for example, not clear whether “love thy enemy” is a precept or a supererogatory counsel.
What part of speech is supererogatory?
Supererogatory is an adjective.
How do you pronounce supererogatory?
Supererogatory is pronounced /suːpəɹɛˈɹɒɡətəɹi/.

Words near supererogatory in the dictionary

  1. supererogations
  2. supererogative
  3. supererogator
  4. supererogatorily
  5. supererogators
  6. supererogatory
  7. supererotic
  8. supereruption
  9. supereruptions
  10. superessence
  11. superessences

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: supererogatory (page history and authors); supererogatory (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-supererogatory.wav.

Cite this entry: “supererogatory.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/supererogatory. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.