extraneous
Americanadjective
-
introduced or coming from without; not belonging or proper to a thing; external; foreign.
extraneous substances in our water.
- Synonyms:
- alien, adventitious, extrinsic
- Antonyms:
- intrinsic
-
not pertinent; irrelevant.
an extraneous remark; extraneous decoration.
- Synonyms:
- superfluous, nonessential, inappropriate
adjective
-
not essential
-
not pertinent or applicable; irrelevant
-
coming from without; of external origin
-
not belonging; unrelated to that to which it is added or in which it is contained
Other Word Forms
- extraneously adverb
- extraneousness noun
- nonextraneous adjective
- nonextraneously adverb
- nonextraneousness noun
- unextraneous adjective
- unextraneously adverb
Etymology
Origin of extraneous
First recorded in 1630–40; from Latin extrāneus “external, foreign,” equivalent to extr(a)- extra- + -ān(us) -an + -eus -eous
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.
That they’re the only black principals brings something new to the story, and alliance, and something extraneous to the message of Hedda’s social suffocation and the motive for her misdeeds.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 28, 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
For an even more extraneous cinematic reference, Barry Keoghan reprises his role from Banshees of Inisherin for Squarespace … a service that sells a domain-making tool.
From Slate • Feb. 10, 2025
On Jan. 24, Wegmans issued a recall for its store-brand frozen, breaded chicken breast nuggets over possible contamination with extraneous material, specifically bone fragments.
From Salon • Jan. 30, 2025
The sleeping pill was an extraneous gesture; I didn’t need it, but the mere possibility of restlessness, of an afternoon full of bad dreams and distant plumbing noises, was too unpleasant to even contemplate.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
