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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

supernumerary.

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

13 characters6 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˌsuːpəˈnjuːm(ə)ɹ(ə)ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˌsupɚˈn(j)uməˌɹɛɹi/General-American
  1. 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. An extra or walk-on, often non-speaking, in a film or play; a spear carrier.

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

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

  5. A married man or woman who is a secular member of Opus Dei, a Roman Catholic religious institution.

Where this word comes from

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.

adj/ˌsuːpəˈnjuːm(ə)ɹ(ə)ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˌsupɚˈn(j)uməˌɹɛɹi/General-American
  1. Greater in number than.

    not-comparable
  2. Beyond the prescribed or standard amount or number; excess, extra.

    not-comparable
  3. Beyond the prescribed or standard amount or number; excess, extra. Of an organ or structure: additional to what is normally present.

    not-comparable · specifically
    a supernumerary nipple; a supernumerary tooth
  4. Beyond what is necessary; redundant.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.