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Tempered vs Excess - What's the difference?

tempered | excess |

As adjectives the difference between tempered and excess

is that tempered is of one's disposition while excess is more than is normal, necessary or specified.

As a verb tempered

is (temper).

As a noun excess is

the state of surpassing or going beyond limits; the being of a measure beyond sufficiency, necessity, or duty; that which exceeds what is usual or proper; immoderateness; superfluity; superabundance; extravagance; as, an excess of provisions or of light.

tempered

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Of one's disposition.
  • The Pyncheon Elm, throughout its great circumference, was all alive, and full of the morning sun and a sweet-tempered little breeze, which lingered within this verdant sphere, and set a thousand leafy tongues a-whispering all at once. This aged tree appeared to have suffered nothing from the gale.'' — Nathaniel Hawthorne, ''The House of the Seven Gables , Chapter 19.
  • Pertaining to the metallurgical process for finishing metals.
  • 1851' ''"Not forged!" and snatching Perth's levelled iron from the crotch, Ahab held it out, exclaiming -- "Look ye, Nantucketer; here in this hand I hold his death! '''Tempered''' in blood, and '''tempered by lightning are these barbs; and I swear to temper them triply in that hot place behind the fin, where the white whale most feels his accursed life!"'' — Herman Melville, '' Moby Dick.
  • Of something moderated or balanced by other considerations.
  • 1792' ''The downcast eye, the rosy blush, the retiring grace, are all proper in their season; but modesty, being the child of reason, cannot long exist with the sensibility that is not '''tempered by reflection'' — Mary Wollstonecraft, '' A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
  • (music) Pertaining to the well-tempered scale, where the twelve notes per octave of the standard keyboard are tuned in such a way that it is possible to play music in any major or minor key and it will not sound perceptibly out of tune.
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * untempered

    Verb

    (head)
  • (temper)
  • See also

    * good-tempered * well-tempered

    excess

    English

    Noun

    (es) (Spherical excess)
  • The state of surpassing or going beyond limits; the being of a measure beyond sufficiency, necessity, or duty; that which exceeds what is usual or proper; immoderateness; superfluity; superabundance; extravagance; as, an excess of provisions or of light.
  • * , King John , act 4, scene 2:
  • To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
    To throw a perfume on the violet, . . .
    Is wasteful and ridiculous excess .
  • * , "Jealosy", in The Poetical Works of William Walsh (1797), page 19 (Google preview):
  • That kills me with excess' of grief, this with ' excess of joy.
  • The degree or amount by which one thing or number exceeds another; remainder.
  • The difference between two numbers is the excess of one over the other.
  • An undue indulgence of the appetite; transgression of proper moderation in natural gratifications; intemperance; dissipation.
  • * :
  • And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess .
  • * 1667 , , Paradise Lost , Book III:
  • Fair Angel, thy desire . . .
    . . . leads to no excess
    That reaches blame
  • (geometry) Spherical excess, the amount by which the sum of the three angles of a spherical triangle exceeds two right angles. The spherical excess is proportional to the area of the triangle.
  • (British, insurance) A condition on an insurance policy by which the insured pays for a part of the claim.
  • Synonyms

    * (qualifier) (l)

    Antonyms

    * deficiency

    Adjective

    (-)
  • More than is normal, necessary or specified.
  • Derived terms

    * excess baggage

    See also

    * usury