extraneous

[ik-strey-nee-uhs] / ɪkˈstreɪ ni əs /

ADJECTIVE

unneeded; irrelevant

Synonyms

STRONGEST

additional immaterial incidental nonessential superfluous supplementary unconnected unnecessary unrelated

WEAK

accidental adventitious beside the point extra foreign impertinent inadmissible inapplicable inapposite inappropriate inessential needless off the subject peripheral pointless redundant unessential

Antonyms

STRONGEST

essential important material necessary needed relevant

WEAK

appropriate basic integral national native pertinent

ADJECTIVE

foreign

Synonyms

STRONGEST

external

WEAK

adventitious alien exotic extrinsic out of place strange

Antonyms

WEAK

appropriate basic essential integral national native necessary needed pertinent relevant

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

And a solo for limber Yuniel Betancourt that is meant to serve as punctuation feels more extraneous than conclusive.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 17, 2025

"He was just quietly sitting there, taking script pages out, cutting them up, removing extraneous stuff like scene descriptions, and then sticking them back onto blank pages," he said.

From BBC • Mar. 1, 2025

News organizations routinely edit interviews, removing extraneous words and redundant phrases.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 26, 2025

One could read this strange, extraneous sight as Perkins’ attempt to send up our macabre fixation with death, rubbernecking at gruesome sights we should want to turn away from.

From Salon • Feb. 21, 2025

The key to making subject and verb agree is to correctly identify the subject, and for that you have to simplify the sentence in your mind and eliminate the extraneous stuff.

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner

extraneous

Example Sentences

Related Words