Definition of adventitiousnext
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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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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 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
  • Educational psychology provides a useful framework for understanding this phenomenon through the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
    — Jason Benedict, Fortune, 7 July 2026
  • Extrinsic rewards, such as grades, do so because extrinsic desires tend to crowd out intrinsic ones.
    — David Brooks, The Atlantic, 28 June 2026
Adjective
  • Over the past half century, Americans have grown accustomed to regional conflicts fought by specialized professional troops, in which the support of Congress or the American public seems more or less irrelevant.
    — Beverly Gage, New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2026
  • Lamont dismissed Stefanowski’s private-sector record at GE, UBS and the payday lender, DFC Global, as irrelevant, at least compared to a public record.
    — Mark Pazniokas, Hartford Courant, 25 Sep. 2026
Adjective
  • Expecting heavy traffic on the site, the archive has outsourced the database to external servers to avoid overloading its own.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 30 Sep. 2026
  • In those and other instances, AI agents have ignored instructions, gone beyond what was asked of them and hacked external websites.
    — Kelvin Chan, Los Angeles Times, 29 Sep. 2026
Adjective
  • As other poorly issued smart home gadget updates have proven, extraneous technology can spoil a simple product.
    — Scharon Harding, ArsTechnica, 23 Sep. 2026
  • There are multiple hours of fundamentally extraneous footage.
    — Sam Bodrojan, IndieWire, 17 Sep. 2026
Adjective
  • The distraction and the absence of warning signals also led to the boy’s accidental death.
    — Sam Gillette, PEOPLE, 25 Sep. 2026
  • Her reference to that particular city doesn’t seem accidental.
    — Hillary Busis, Vanity Fair, 25 Sep. 2026
Adjective
  • The space baby is successfully born, and the two Uhuras are transported to the bridge of the Enterprise and thanked by the alien midwives.
    — Joe Otterson, Variety, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Sounds Some Omnitrix replicas produce sound effects inspired by the device on the show and ones similar to Ben Tennyson’s alien forms.
    — BestReviews, Chicago Tribune, 24 Sep. 2026
Adjective
  • McGovern lost, Obama won—but Obama won the presidency without transforming the Democratic foreign-policy class.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2026
  • In other words, Yemen and the Houthis may seem like yet another distant problem to Americans, many of whom are understandably fatigued by foreign interventions, and struggling with a spiraling cost of living.
    — Matthew Chance, CNN Money, 24 Sep. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Adventitious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/adventitious. Accessed 30 Sep. 2026.

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