surplusage

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In discussing the 14th Amendment, Mr. Barnett fairly shows that the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” isn’t empty surplusage.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

Some of that surplusage is sold by private surplus retailers.

From Seattle Times • May 19, 2024

But “our preference for avoiding surplusage constructions is not absolute.”

From MSNBC • Jun. 25, 2015

For a long while I thought sincerely that the newspaper insistence on writing into their code a clause saving their constitutional rights was pure surplusage.

From Time Magazine Archive

I am not sure the answer may not be, 'You are never at your post, and your request is mere surplusage, and nobody knows or cares where you are,' &c.

From Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters, Vol. II by Downey, Edmund