extraneous
adjective
Did you know?
We’d hate to be extra, so we won’t weigh you down with a lot of extraneous information about the word extraneous. Instead, we’ll tell you that it has been a part of the English language since at least the mid-1600s, and that it comes from the Latin word extrāneus, which means “not belonging to one’s family or household; external.” Extrāneus—a combination of the Latin adverb/preposition extrā (“outside” or “beyond”) and adjective suffix -āneus—is also the root of the English words strange and estrange; its influence is even more obvious in the Spanish adjective extraño, meaning “strange.” The “outside/beyond” senses of extrā are also evident in non-extraneous English words like extraterrestrial, which refers to a creature originating from “outside” planet Earth, and extrajudicial, which describes something “beyond” what is allowed by a court.
Examples of extraneous in a Sentence
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
She sped up the process by eliminating all extraneous steps.
the architect's streamlined modern style shuns any sort of extraneous ornamentation
Natasha Gural, Forbes.com, 13 May 2025
There are no extraneous set pieces to keep the audience’s attention, no rousing speeches from world leaders, no context provided about why Ramadi was important to American interests during the Iraq War.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 7 May 2025
So while Federal programs may seem like an extraneous, irrelevant waste of funds, Americorps changed my life.
—Dp Opinion, Denver Post, 6 May 2025
But the story could be streamlined and clarified by cutting out some of the extraneous characters not crucial to the plot.
—Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for extraneous
Cite this Entry
“Extraneous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extraneous. Accessed 22 May. 2025.
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extraneous
adjective
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