surpass

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French surpasser (“to pass beyond”). Surface etymology is sur- +‎ pass.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɚˈpæs/
• Rhymes: -ɑːs

Verb

1. (transitive) To go beyond, especially in a metaphoric or technical manner; to exceed.

   The former problem student surpassed his instructor's expectations and scored top marks on his examination.

   The heavy rains threatened to surpass the capabilities of the levee, endangering the town on the other side.

   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Tremarn Case‎^[1]:

     “Two or three months more went by ; the public were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this semi-exotic claimant to an English peerage, and sensations, surpassing those of the Tichbourne case, were looked forward to with palpitating interest. […]”

Synonyms

• (to go beyond): exceed, forpass, transcend; see also Thesaurus:transcend
• (in a metaphoric or technical manner): exceed, excel, outdo, outstrip; see also Thesaurus:exceed

Translations

to exceed

• Arabic: فَاقَ (fāqa)

  Egyptian Arabic: اتجاوز (egaawez), علي على (ʕeli ʕala)

• Aromanian: astrec, antrec
• Azerbaijani: ötmək (az)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 超過／超过 (ciu¹ gwo³), 超过 (ciu¹ gwo³)

  Mandarin: 超過／超过 (zh) (chāoguò), 超过 (zh) (chāoguò), 超越 (zh) (chāoyuè), 勝過／胜过 (zh) (shèngguò), 胜过 (zh) (shèngguò)

• Dutch: overstijgen (nl), overtreffen (nl)
• Esperanto: superi
• Finnish: ylittää (fi)
• French: surpasser (fr), dépasser (fr), excéder (fr)
• German: übersteigen (de), übertreffen (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ὑπερβάλλω (huperbállō), καίνυμαι (kaínumai)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Ido: superirar (io)
• Italian: sorpassare (it)
• Japanese: 超える (ja) (こえる, koeru), 勝る (まさる, masaru)
• Latin: superō, praecellō
• Maori: hipa, hau, pahika
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: overgå

  Nynorsk: overgå

• Portuguese: ultrapassar (pt), superar (pt), suplantar (pt), sobrepassar
• Romanian: depăși (ro), întrece (ro)
• Russian: превосходи́ть (ru) impf (prevosxodítʹ), превзойти́ (ru) pf (prevzojtí)
• Spanish: sobrepasar (es), superar (es), pasar (es)
• Swedish: överskrida (sv), överträffa (sv)

Further reading

• “surpass”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “surpass”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “surpass”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.