superfluity

Old French superfluite, from Medieval Latin superfluitas, from Latin superfluus.

• IPA^(key): /ˌsuː.pəˈfluː.ɪ.ti/

superfluity (countable and uncountable, plural superfluities)

1. The quality or state of being superfluous; overflowingness.

   Antonym: necessity

2. Something superfluous, as a luxury.

   Antonym: necessity

3. (rare) Collective noun for a group of nuns.
   • 1905, Herbert A. Evans, Highways and Byways in Oxford and the Cotswolds, Macmillan and Co, (1905), page 266:

     These probably mark the dwelling of a colony, or to speak more precisely, according to Dame Juliana Berners, a superfluity of nuns from Godstow, which nunnery had a cell there, and was patron of the living.

   • 2011, Sam Cullen, The Odd Bunnies, unnumbered page:

     Alice put Anna back on the shelf and turned up the volume on the TV, where a local news reporter was imparting a salutary tale of woe involving a superfluity of nuns who'd got into a scrape at a crab festival.

   • 2012, Beth Yarnall, Rush, Crimson Romance (2012), →ISBN, unnumbered page:

     […] That man could charm the panties off a superfluity of nuns.”

• superfluity at OneLook Dictionary Search