as in extrinsic
not being a vital part of or belonging to something
the point of view that art should be for art's sake and that moral considerations are adventitious to the study of art
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Recent Examples of adventitious
Although individual plants have a lifespan of 30-90 years, adventitious shoots grow up from roots.
—
Joshua Siskin, Oc Register, 5 July 2025
The patchy and adventitious quality of Jameson’s reconstruction must make clear his difference as a thinker.
—Mark Greif, Harper's Magazine, 26 July 2024
The cut appears to have been high enough that the stump should still have enough adventitious buds to regrow.
—Jonathan Edwards, Washington Post, 3 Oct. 2023
Plant Deep — Really Deep Tomatoes have the ability to produce roots off their stems, known as adventitious roots.
—Margaret Roach, New York Times, 12 May 2020
This can also occur when trees are planted too deep, as adventitious (growing sideways from the stem) roots grow against the stem and squeeze the sapwood.
—Rebecca Jepsen, The Mercury News, 28 Aug. 2019
Joshua Siskin, Oc Register, 5 July 2025
The patchy and adventitious quality of Jameson’s reconstruction must make clear his difference as a thinker.
—Mark Greif, Harper's Magazine, 26 July 2024
The cut appears to have been high enough that the stump should still have enough adventitious buds to regrow.
—Jonathan Edwards, Washington Post, 3 Oct. 2023
Plant Deep — Really Deep Tomatoes have the ability to produce roots off their stems, known as adventitious roots.
—Margaret Roach, New York Times, 12 May 2020
This can also occur when trees are planted too deep, as adventitious (growing sideways from the stem) roots grow against the stem and squeeze the sapwood.
—Rebecca Jepsen, The Mercury News, 28 Aug. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for adventitious
Adjective
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Gray emphasized that true free play is not oriented around extrinsic goals, such as earning a high grade from a teacher or impressing a soccer coach.—
Jessica Winter,
New Yorker,
17 Oct. 2025
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Those new to options trading should understand basic terms (e.g., premiums, extrinsic and intrinsic value, moneyness) and know the Greeks (measurements of an option’s sensitivity to various factors).—
Michael Martin,
Forbes.com,
28 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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But several costly mistakes on offense rendered all of Miami’s one-sided statistics irrelevant as Brooks pointed out.—
Andre Fernandez,
Miami Herald,
31 Oct. 2025
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And when data doesn’t reflect how people make real decisions, the technology quickly becomes irrelevant.—
Adam Mills,
MSNBC Newsweek,
29 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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The film begins with marital and financial stressors and exacerbates them with the influence of predatory external forces.—
Alan Bradley,
Space.com,
8 Nov. 2025
-
Back up critical data to both an external drive and cloud storage.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
7 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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The denim purveyor said in its complaint that the tab trademark has come to be known as a concrete signal that consumers are buying an authentic Levi’s product and argued that extraneous uses of that trademark could dilute or harm its own brand.—
Meghan Hall,
Sourcing Journal,
31 Oct. 2025
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Our commerce writer Julia Harrison writes that her Moccamaster One Cup is a delight, principally because of its simplicity as a drip coffee maker—free of extraneous frothers or digital interfaces or timers.—
Blake Bakkila,
Architectural Digest,
8 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Denim’s workwear roots laid the foundation for Iron Shop Provisions founder Josh Guillory’s accidental journey into denim retail and design.—
Angela Velasquez,
Sourcing Journal,
11 Nov. 2025
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The manner of death was listed as accidental.—
Hannah Dailey,
Billboard,
10 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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Our heavily armored alien menace starts taking out drug cartel goons and making a mess, and a couple of cops (Danny Glover and Bill Paxton) plus an unhinged DEA agent (Gary Busey) are on the case to investigate.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
9 Nov. 2025
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Dark Skies does an excellent job of using an alien threat as a metaphor for the pressures on the nuclear American family that lead to so many of them disintegrating.—
Alan Bradley,
Space.com,
8 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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All face charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and additional juvenile cases may be under seal.—
Jasmine Baehr,
FOXNews.com,
9 Nov. 2025
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There’s big studio stuff coming from Pixar or DreamWorks and nothing else except foreign films that get brought in.—
Marta Balaga,
Variety,
8 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Adventitious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/adventitious. Accessed 26 Nov. 2025.
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