redundancy

noun

re·​dun·​dan·​cy ri-ˈdən-dən(t)-sē 

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

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.

Synonyms of redundancy

• repetition
• repetitiveness
• verbosity
• wordiness
• prolixity
• diffusion
• diffuseness
• wordage
• logorrhea
• circumlocution

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 on the Web

To reduce that workload, Neros redesigned the Crossbow antenna system with more than twice the beam width of the previous version and added dual receivers for redundancy. —Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 1 June 2026

When Copilot Health becomes available through enterprise channels, healthcare CIOs need to quickly identify which integrations make sense and which create redundancy. —David Chou, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026

This results in low per-unit costs, economies of scale, massive redundancy, and the ability to launch and replace entire constellations at relatively short notice. —David Szondy may 31, New Atlas, 31 May 2026

Dort shot 5 of 25 from deep in the West finals, and his reputation as a defender doesn’t hide the redundancy on a roster in which Alex Caruso still offers major contributions and Cason Wallace continuously proves disruptive. —Joel Lorenzi, New York Times, 31 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1601, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

redundancy

noun

re·​dun·​dan·​cy ri-ˈdən-dən-sē 

plural redundancies

1

: the quality or state of being redundant

2

a

: the use of unnecessary words

b

: an act or instance of needless repetition