# extraneous

**Pronunciation:** /ɪkˈstreɪniəs/ · ik-STRAY-nee-us

**CEFR level:** C1

**Part of speech:** adjective

## Meaning

Irrelevant or unrelated to the subject being dealt with; not essential.

## Examples

- The report was too long because it included a lot of extraneous details that didn't support the main argument.
- Please remove any extraneous items from your desk before the inspection.
- During the editing process, she cut out all the extraneous scenes to make the film more concise.

## Synonyms

- irrelevant — Most common and general synonym, simply meaning 'not connected'.
- unnecessary — Suggests something could be omitted without loss.
- superfluous — Implies being more than is needed or wanted, often to an excessive degree.
- incidental — Something minor or secondary, happening as a consequence of something more important.

## Antonyms

- essential — Absolutely necessary or important.
- relevant — Directly connected to the matter at hand.
- integral — Forming a necessary part of something.

## Collocations

- extraneous details — The lawyer advised the witness to stick to the facts and avoid extraneous details.
- extraneous noise — To concentrate, he tried to block out all the extraneous noise from the street.
- extraneous information — The software filtered out any extraneous information that wasn't relevant to the search query.

Canonical URL: https://anaversity.com/dictionary/english/extraneous

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