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extraneous
About Our Definitions: All forms of a word (noun, verb, etc.) are now displayed on one page.

ex·tra·ne·ous

adjective \ek-ˈstrā-nē-əs\

: existing on or coming from the outside <extraneous light>

a : not forming an essential or vital part <extraneous ornamentation>

b : having no relevance <an extraneous digression>

: being a number obtained in solving an equation that is not a solution of the equation <extraneous roots>

— ex·tra·ne·ous·ly adverb

— ex·tra·ne·ous·ness noun

She sped up the process by eliminating all extraneous steps.
<the architect's streamlined modern style shuns any sort of extraneous ornamentation>
Obviously, some degree of packaging is necessary to transport and protect the products we need, but all too often manufacturers add extraneous wrappers over wrappers and layers of unnecessary plastic. —Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, 2006
Industry sages argue that lump charcoal is poised for a back-to-the-future resurgence. They say that a new generation of consumers—aware that most briquettes are shot through with all manner of extraneous materials, from fillers of pulverized limestone to binders of sugarcane bagasse and ignition catalysts of sodium nitrate—are willing to pay the two-buck-a-bag premium for true lump, which, compared to traditional briquettes, lights quicker, burns hotter, and throws off no chemical residue. —John T. Edge, Gourmet, June 2003
The summer concert season is at hand, which means lots of warm nights wishing the guy in the row behind you would bogart that joint instead of blowing smoke into your hair, and lots of days spent wondering just how many extraneous … charges one ticket can possibly have added on. —Entertainment Weekly, 18 May 2001
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