redundancy

noun re·dun·dan·cy \ ri-ˈdən-dən(t)-sē \

|Updated on: 13 Jun 2018

Examples: redundancy in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of redundancy

plural redundancies

1 a : the quality or state of being redundant : superfluity

b : the use of redundant components; also : such components

c chiefly British : dismissal from a job especially by layoff

2 : profusion, abundance

3 a : superfluous repetition : prolixity

b : an act or instance of needless repetition

4 : the part of a message that can be eliminated without loss of essential information

See redundancy defined for English-language learners

See redundancy defined for kids

Examples of redundancy in a Sentence

Avoid redundancy in your writing.
Try to avoid using redundancies in your writing.
The design incorporates several redundancies.
a system with a high level of redundancy
The restructuring is expected to result in the redundancy of several hundred workers.
The workers are now facing redundancy.

Recent Examples of redundancy from the Web

But this new format hasn’t completely eliminated redundancy.

— eric single, SI.com, "Stetson, Florida Are Two Teams to Watch in the 2018 Journey to the College World Series," 28 May 2018
Other workers will be encouraged to take voluntary redundancy.

— david meyer, Fortune, "GM Korea May Have Avoided Bankruptcy at the Last Minute," 23 Apr. 2018
The incidents experienced by Allegiant also show the redundancy in modern airliners.

— john cox, USA TODAY, "A pilot’s perspective: Yes, it’s safe to fly on Allegiant Air," 18 Apr. 2018
Premium Luxury trim, a cringeworthy linguistic redundancy, comes with 22-inch wheels, making for an attractive and unapologetic profile of bigness.

— robert duffer, chicagotribune.com, "Auto review: 2017 Cadillac Escalade full-size SUV comes up short," 12 Sep. 2017
Those systems include redundancies and never are disabled, the company said.

— ryan randazzo, azcentral, "Uber disabled emergency brakes on self-driving car prior to fatal crash, NTSB says," 24 May 2018
One study found that large farms boosted their incomes by $13 billion because of redundancies within the 2014 bill.

— alex shephard, The New Republic, "The Farm Bill Is Everything That’s Wrong With Congress," 18 May 2018
The way that most merging companies achieve those goals is by eliminating redundancies, which typically means cutting jobs, among other things.

— gigi sohn, WIRED, "Promises Mean Little for Consumers in T-Mobile-Sprint Deal," 10 May 2018
There is a bit of redundancy here — in Dejounte Murray, the Spurs already have a high-potential point guard with shooting issues — but Fultz’s talent is undeniable.

— jeff mcdonald, San Antonio Express-News, "What could the Spurs get for Kawhi Leonard?," 5 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'redundancy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Redundancy, closely related to redound, has stayed close to the original meaning of "overflow" or "more than necessary". Avoiding redundancy is one of the prime rules of good writing. ""In the modern world of today" contains a redundancy; so does "He died of fatal wounds" and "For the mutual benefit of both parties". But redundancy doesn't just occur in language. "Data redundancy" means keeping the same computer data in more than one place as a safety measure, and a backup system in an airplane may provide redundancy, again for the sake of safety.

First Known Use of redundancy

1601

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year

NEW! Time Traveler

redundancy Synonyms

Other Aeronautics/Aerospace Terms

airway, apron, corridor, dirigible, fishtail, flat-hat, vector

REDUNDANCY Defined for English Language Learners

redundancy

noun

Definition of redundancy for English Language Learners

: the act of using a word, phrase, etc., that repeats something else and is therefore unnecessary
: a word, phrase, etc., that repeats something else and is therefore unnecessary : a redundant word, phrase, etc.
: a part in a machine, system, etc., that has the same function as another part and that exists so that the entire machine, system, etc., will not fail if the main part fails