extraneous

American  

[ik-strey-nee-uhs] / ɪkˈstreɪ ni əs /

adjective

1. 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

2. not pertinent; irrelevant.

   an extraneous remark; extraneous decoration.

   Synonyms:

   superfluous, nonessential, inappropriate

   Antonyms:

   relevant, pertinent

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extraneous British  

/ ɪkˈstreɪnɪəs /

adjective

1. not essential

2. not pertinent or applicable; irrelevant

3. coming from without; of external origin

4. not belonging; unrelated to that to which it is added or in which it is contained

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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

Explanation

Extraneous means coming from the outside, like the extraneous noise you hear when you're in a theater and a train passes by. Extraneous can also mean not relevant or essential, like all the extraneous information in your long-winded science report. In Latin, extra means outside, as in extraordinary "outside the ordinary," or extraterrestrial 'coming from outside earth.' (Bonus points––ding! ding!––if you knew that terra is Latin for "earth.") The meaning of extraneous also extends to more abstract things that come from the outside: extraneous details are ones that don't matter.

Example Sentences

These highly automated sites run 24/7 and can’t afford even tiny traces of extraneous gases or chemicals to contaminate their precision production, says Liu.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 17, 2026

Her ballerina background, however, is fairly extraneous, even with De Armas made to stare solemnly at that blasted music box during her rare moments of rest.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 5, 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

“You know, I suppose,” she continued, “just exactly at what point in the assembly an extraneous factor was introduced or an essential one left out.”

From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov

Related Words

• additional
• immaterial
• incidental
• nonessential
• superfluous
• supplementary
• unconnected
• unnecessary
• unrelated