Synonyms of peripheral

peripheral

adjective

pə-ˈri-f(ə-)rəl 

as in auxiliary

available to supply something extra when needed

the IT consultant suggested that we update the drivers for all of the computer's peripheral devices

Synonyms & Similar Words

• auxiliary
• additional
• accessory
• supplementary
• makeshift
• supplemental
• appurtenant
• accessorial
• complementary
• further
• added
• contributory
• backup
• supportive
• subordinate
• secondary
• assisting
• assistant
• another
• tributary
• excess
• superfluous
• subsidiary
• surplus
• substitute
• nonessential
• dispensable
• helping
• unessential
• adjuvant
• subservient

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• main
• principal
• chief
• basic
• primary
• fundamental
• prime
• necessary
• essential
• integral
• vital
• imperative
• required
• requisite
• all-important
• indispensable
• needed
• needful

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of peripheral

Walk through the peripheral forest, and gnarly bundles of sticks and grass hang from the trees above — lifted there from floods months earlier. — Sean MacAday, Sacbee.com, 20 Sep. 2026

When parents are trying to understand chemotherapy while simultaneously wondering how to pay the mortgage or feed their family, those problems cannot be dismissed as peripheral to the medical care. — Vidya Puthenpura, Hartford Courant, 18 Sep. 2026

Agents are no longer peripheral figures who enter an athlete’s life shortly before a professional draft. — Chris Corr, Sportico.com, 17 Sep. 2026

As a peripheral community grows around them, this lawless terrain is suddenly subject to boundaries and contracts and taxes; both uneducated and illiterate, Isak and Inger are ill prepared for such societal evolution. — Guy Lodge, Variety, 16 Sep. 2026