surplus meaning

• Noun: surplus  surplus
  1. A quantity much larger than is needed
     - excess, surplusage, nimiety
  Adjective: surplus  surplus
  1. More than is needed, desired, or required
     "surplus cheese distributed to the needy"
     - excess, extra, redundant, spare, supererogatory, superfluous, supernumerary

  Sounds like: surplice

  Derived forms: surpluses

  See also: unnecessary, unneeded

  Type of: overabundance, overmuch, overmuchness, superabundance

  Encyclopedia: Surplus Surplus,Supply and demand

• 
  [Business]
  AmE / noun, adjective

  ■ noun [C,U]

  ECONOMIC SURPLUS, EXTERNAL SURPLUS, BUYER'S SURPLUS, CONSUMER SURPLUS, STRUCTURAL SURPLUS, TRADE SURPLUS

  1

  an amount that is extra or more than you need:

  a surplus of housing

  The area has large job surpluses, requiring 10 000 people to fill available posts.

  Skilled workers are in surplus in some regions.

  SYN GLUT OPP SHORTAGE

  2 (Accounting ; Economics )

  the amount by which money that a government or business receives is greater than the amount of money spent in a particular period of time:

  The country has a huge budget surplus as it is a large oil exporting nation.

  The balance of payments was in surplus last year

  (= the value of exports was greater than the value of imports).

  The final-salary pension plan still has a healthy surplus.

  Venezuela's second-quarter current account surplus was up 3.4%.

  ⇨ DEFICIT See note at PROFIT

  ■ adjective

  more than is needed or used:

  surplus cash/funds

  Surplus grain is being sold for export.

  These items are surplus to requirements (= not needed).

  The industry is suffering from surplus capacity (= it can produce more than is needed) across the world.

  The company is to return $2 million of surplus capital to shareholders.

• 
  [Economics]
  See budget surplus, consumer surplus, current account surplus, export surplus, and producer's surplus
• 
  [Finance]
  A situation in which assets exceed liabilities, income exceeds expenditures, exports exceed imports, or profits exceed losses.

• acquired surplus:    [Finance]The surpl ...
• actuarial surplus:    [Economics]The sur ...
• budget surplus:    [Economics]The exc ...

Examples

1. the enemy had a surplus of refining capacity.
2. the accounts show a surplus of 2,000 yuan.
3. this food is surplus to requirements.
4. india had a large surplus of wheat in 1985.
5. no surplus of accumulated purchasing power stands.