redundant

Intermediatezipf 3.59

Pronunciation

/rɪˈdʌndənt/(rih-DUN-dunt)

Part of speech

adjectiveneutral

Chinese

多余的；冗余的；被裁的（英式：被解雇的）

Definition

No longer needed or useful; exceeding what is necessary; (British) dismissed from a job because the position is no longer needed.

Word family

  • redundancy/rɪˈdʌndənsi/(n)冗余；裁员

Collocations

  • make redundant
  • redundant information
  • redundant workers
  • redundant system
  • built-in redundancy

Examples

  1. 1.Automation made many factory workers redundant, eliminating thousands of jobs. (no longer needed)
  2. 2.The system has built-in redundancy — if one server fails, another takes over instantly. (backup duplication)

Synonyms

  • superfluous/suːˈpɜːrfluəs/— more than is needed
  • unnecessary/ʌnˈnɛsəsəri/— not needed
  • surplus/ˈsɜːrpləs/— an amount that exceeds what is needed

Etymology

from Latin "redundans" (overflowing) — re- (again) + undare (to surge) — "unda" (wave) — overflowing beyond what's needed