as in extra
not needed by the circumstances or to accomplish an end
that large suitcase is unnecessary—we are only going to be away for a couple of days
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Recent Examples of unnecessary
Although each patient’s case is different, some doctors now argue that using beta-blockers for a year or two if needed rather than a lifetime could help people avoid unnecessary side effects and save money.
—
Jacqueline Howard, CNN Money, 30 Mar. 2026
The color represents any and all attempts to impose unnecessary order on the world by both real and self-appointed authority figures.
—Hershal Pandya, Vulture, 30 Mar. 2026
Ocean safety officials are urging the public to stay alert and avoid taking unnecessary risks along affected coastlines.
—Anna Skinner, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Mar. 2026
Plan ahead Plan fuel-efficient routes using apps like Google Maps to avoid backtracking and unnecessary stops.
—Deirdre Bardolf, FOXNews.com, 28 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for unnecessary
Jacqueline Howard, CNN Money, 30 Mar. 2026
The color represents any and all attempts to impose unnecessary order on the world by both real and self-appointed authority figures.
—Hershal Pandya, Vulture, 30 Mar. 2026
Ocean safety officials are urging the public to stay alert and avoid taking unnecessary risks along affected coastlines.
—Anna Skinner, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Mar. 2026
Plan ahead Plan fuel-efficient routes using apps like Google Maps to avoid backtracking and unnecessary stops.
—Deirdre Bardolf, FOXNews.com, 28 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for unnecessary
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unnecessary
Adjective
-
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, one of Mangione's lead defense lawyers, asked for several months of extra time, saying Mangione's legal team needed to prepare for the federal case after his state trial.—
Michael Ruiz , Maria Paronich,
FOXNews.com,
1 Apr. 2026
-
The company is considering a dual-class share structure in the listing that would potentially give insiders such as Musk extra voting power to dominate decision making.—
Bailey Lipschultz,
Fortune,
1 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Some of these technologies are essential for ensuring the proper functioning of the service or website and cannot be disabled, while others are optional but serve to enhance the user experience in various ways.—
Walden Green,
Pitchfork,
6 Apr. 2026
-
In addition to sharing contact and school information, the link for the image, and a 200-400 artist statement describing your flag, students will answer a series of short, optional questions about their process.—
USA Today,
USA Today,
6 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Prince Harry and Meghan and the Royal Rift The day will, of course, be about Phillips and Sperling and their union but needless to say many a royal wedding has been overshadowed by family drama in the past and there is the potential for this one to contain some elements of the royal soap opera.—
Jack Royston,
MSNBC Newsweek,
1 Apr. 2026
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And needless to say, there is some credence to the rumor, given Wheatley and Newey’s long and successful working relationship at Red Bull, where Wheatley served as sporting director and made a significant contribution to the team’s success.—
Jerry Perez,
The Drive,
19 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
Being an irrelevant subject in the production of capital is an increasingly common positionality—and this is especially true for people who have been displaced by war or whose national economy has been significantly reordered by neoliberal reform.—
Shanti Escalante-De Mattei,
ARTnews.com,
6 Apr. 2026
-
Everything the Rockies wanted to show their shivering fans was different about this team became irrelevant.—
Troy Renck,
Denver Post,
4 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
The country has advised citizens to stay at home to avoid nonessential travel and to ride bicycles, carpool and use public transport.—
Jasmine Laws,
MSNBC Newsweek,
1 Apr. 2026
-
Temporarily reduce nonessential spending.—
Tiffany Aliche,
SELF,
30 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
Instead, public guidance was at times delivered with unwarranted confidence and revised too slowly as evidence evolved.—
Charles J. Lockwood,
STAT,
31 Mar. 2026
-
His lawyer Tikaram Bhattarai told Reuters that the arrest was unwarranted.—
CNN Money,
CNN Money,
28 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
Even so, many of those redundant components have either broken down or been turned off to conserve power.—
Mack DeGeurin,
Popular Science,
2 Apr. 2026
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Key recommendations include the mutual recognition of credible assessments to eliminate redundant audits and the implementation of interoperable data systems to ease the reporting burden on businesses.—
Arthur Zaczkiewicz,
Footwear News,
2 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Many people are trying to protect themselves from becoming dispensable as the role of AI expands in the workplace, said Erik Brynjolfsson, an economics professor at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.—
Annie Nova,
CNBC,
25 Feb. 2026
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In any case, in the first heat of their serious adventures with men, female friends seemed dispensable.—
Tessa Hadley,
New Yorker,
25 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Unnecessary.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unnecessary. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026.
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