Meaning & use
surpass
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To be better, greater or larger than someone or something, especially by going beyond a previous record or standard.
Grammar: Takes an object: she surpassed her rivals; often followed by in.
Patterns
- surpass someone
- surpass something
- surpass someone in something
Sales this year surpassed the company's most hopeful predictions.
The young pianist soon surpassed her teacher in skill.
Online streaming has surpassed television as the main way many people watch films.
verbtransitiveliterary
To be so good or extreme that it cannot be described or matched by ordinary terms.
Grammar: Often takes an abstract object such as expectations or understanding: it surpassed all expectations.
Patterns
- surpass all expectations
- surpass understanding
The beauty of the valley surpassed anything he had imagined.
The generosity of the neighbors surpassed all expectations.
Her kindness surpassed words.
Word forms
| third person singular | surpasses |
|---|---|
| past tense | surpassed |
| past participle | surpassed |
| -ing form | surpassing |
Common combinations
- surpass expectations
- The new phone surpassed expectations in its first week.
- surpass a record
- The swimmer surpassed the record set three years earlier.
- far surpass
- Demand has far surpassed supply.
- surpass yourself
- The chef really surpassed herself with tonight's dessert.
- surpass in quality
- Their bread surpasses all others in quality.
Synonyms and how they differ
- exceed
- Exceed is the usual word for going over a number or limit, while surpass often suggests beating a standard or rival in quality.
- outdo
- Outdo is more informal and suggests competing with someone, whereas surpass is calmer and more formal.
- outstrip
- Outstrip suggests pulling ahead of others in speed or growth, while surpass is a more general term.
- top
- Top is casual and often used for beating a previous achievement, but surpass sounds more serious.
Opposites
Word family
- surpassing adjective
- extremely great, as in surpassing beauty
- surpassingly adverb
- to an unusually high degree
- unsurpassed adjective
- better than any other
- pass verb
- the basic verb meaning to go by or beyond
Commonly confused: surpass or surpass?
surpass vs surpass
Learners sometimes write surpass with a single s in the middle or confuse it with pass, which just means to go by something rather than to beat it.
Practice
The final results surpassed all our ___.
Choose one answer.
Surpass needs a noun object, and surpass all expectations is a common phrase. The other options are verb or adjective forms and do not fit after all our.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “surpass”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.