extraneous Definition
extra·neous (ek strā′nē əs, ik-)
adjective
- coming from outside; foreign an extraneous substance
- not truly or properly belonging; not essential
- not pertinent; irrelevant
Etymology: L extraneus, external, foreign < extra: see extra-
extraneous Related Forms
extra′·neous·ly adverb
extra′·neous·ness noun
extraneous Synonyms
extraneous
modif.
Foreign
Irrelevant
unessential, inappropriate, incidental; see irrelevant. See syn. study at foreign.
extraneous Usage Examples
Modifying Another Word
- not: Such an about-face into timelessness is not extraneous to Hegel's dialectics and philosophy of history.
- largely: They are largely extraneous to the main transaction, and carry out a mechanical function.
- much: The crowd's not entirely silent, but there's not too much extraneous talking.
- wholly: Obviously the wholly extraneous issue of radicalism and opposition to the war entered into the deliberation of the jury.
- somewhat: Naturalization may have appeared to many as expensive, complex and somewhat extraneous to their daily existence.
- totally: These are totally extraneous from that which is the norm in the rest of the decoration.
Modifies a noun
- noise: A fan in each study booth, to be used by students to block out extraneous noise.
- stimulus: With the extraneous stimuli out of the way, the individual is better able to attend to the important stimuli.
- variable: My feeling is that there are too many extraneous variables for the findings of either to be applied rigidly across the board.
- influence: It was then possible to undertake an analysis that would be free from major extraneous influence which might swamp a more fine grained analysis.
- factor: All seem to make values depend on extraneous factors.
- matter: Then each extraneous matter laid aside, By its own merit be our drama tried.
Used with adjective complement
seem: Thus the IESR data model is a simplification of the RSLPCD model, omitting details that seemed extraneous.
Browse dictionary entries near extraneous
- ‹ extramural
- ‹ extramundane
- ‹ extramarital
- ‹ extralegal
- ‹ extrajudicial
- ‹ extragalactic
- ‹ extrados
- ‹ extradition
- ‹ extradite
- ‹ extraditable

