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

• circumlocution
• diffuseness
• diffusion
• garrulity
• garrulousness
• logorrhea
• long-windedness
• periphrasis
• prolixity
• verbalism
• verbiage
• verboseness
• verbosity
• windiness
• wordage
• wordiness

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

No amount of redundancy in switching centers will help if the data isn’t arriving or arriving in an orderly way. —Aldo Svaldi, The Denver Post, 19 Apr. 2024

To these speculators, Hollywood looked like a gold mine: the studios and entertainment corporations were ripe with redundancies and inefficiencies to be axed—costs to be cut, parts to be sold, profits to be diverted to shareholders, executives, and new, often unrelated ventures. —Daniel Bessner, Harper's Magazine, 21 Mar. 2024

Care should be taken to protect employees who are often laid off as part of many M&A transactions due to redundancy. —Expert Panel®, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024

To enable resiliency in the presence of this noise, digital information is encoded using an algorithm that introduces redundancy and distributes information across many bases. —IEEE Spectrum, 17 Feb. 2024

Relentless will be the largest commercial model in the Bell family, with capacity for 16 passengers and two pilots, and will reportedly be able to cruise at 184 mph for a range of 667 miles, with twin GE turboshaft engines providing redundancy. —Basem Wasef, Robb Report, 11 Feb. 2024

The use of multiple cables also creates more redundancy. —Chris Quintana, USA TODAY, 29 Mar. 2024

Many firms have no room for error or redundancy and thus hire the person best for the position. —Sue Biglieri, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024

To minimize the potential of ships bringing down bridges, bridges need to be built with what are known as redundancies— protections around bridges’ danger points. —Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN, 30 Mar. 2024

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