1. The amount by which one quantity exceeds another or an amount that is more than the usual or necessary amount: "Although there are advantages for users, some people may think that the word lists have an excess of words."
2. Surpassing limits; surplus, extra, overflow: "The excess furniture was stored in the cellar."
3. Superabundance, surplus, overabundance, too much, oversupply, plethora, glut: "The boy had an excess of energy."
4. Etymology: from Latin excessus, "departure, going beyond the bounds of reason or beyond the subject"; from stem of excedere, "to depart, to go beyond".

Some people always confuse access and excess. Access is a way of getting to something or someone; excess is a surplus, a state of overabundance: "How could the thief have gained access to the vault?" "Dieting will take off your excess weight."

Just as too little iodine can cause thyroid disease, so may prolonged intake of too much iodine lead to the development of goiter (swelling of the thyroid gland) and hypothyroidism (abnormally low thyroid activity).

Certain foods and medications contain large amounts of iodine. Examples include seaweed; iodine-rich expectorants (such as SSKI and Lugol's solution) used in the treatment of cough, asthma, chronic pulmonary disease; and amiodarone (CARDORONE), an iodine-rich medication used in the control of abnormal heart rhythms (cardiac arrhythmias).