superfluous

Intermediatezipf 3.00

Pronunciation

/suːˈpɜːfluəs/(soo-PUR-floo-us)

Part of speech

adjectiveformal

Chinese

多余的；不必要的

Definition

More than is needed or wanted; unnecessary.

Word family

  • superfluously/suːˈpɜːfluəsli/(adv)多余地
  • superfluity/ˌsuːpəˈfluːəti/(n)多余

Collocations

  • superfluous information
  • superfluous detail
  • rendered superfluous
  • superfluous words

Examples

  1. 1.The editor removed all superfluous adjectives from the manuscript. (unnecessary)
  2. 2.Automation has rendered many manual tasks superfluous. (no longer needed)

Synonyms

  • unnecessary/ʌnˈnɛsəsəri/— not needed, simple
  • redundant/rɪˈdʌndənt/— no longer useful
  • excessive/ɪkˈsɛsɪv/— too much

Etymology

super- (over) + fluere (to flow) — overflowing, more than enough