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Superfluous   /sˈupərflwˌəs/   Listen
Superfluous

adjective
1.
Serving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being.  Synonyms: otiose, pointless, purposeless, senseless, wasted.  "Advice is wasted words" , "A pointless remark" , "A life essentially purposeless" , "Senseless violence"
2.
More than is needed, desired, or required.  Synonyms: excess, extra, redundant, spare, supererogatory, supernumerary, surplus.  "Found some extra change lying on the dresser" , "Yet another book on heraldry might be thought redundant" , "Skills made redundant by technological advance" , "Sleeping in the spare room" , "Supernumerary ornamentation" , "It was supererogatory of her to gloat" , "Delete superfluous (or unnecessary) words" , "Extra ribs as well as other supernumerary internal parts" , "Surplus cheese distributed to the needy"






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Superfluous" Quotes from Famous Books



... tank; a glass with scale is used outside in summer time. Each inch in height on the scale is converted into cubic feet, and then by means of a table is converted into Russian poods, according to the specific gravity at various temperatures. As it would be superfluous to graduate the table for each separate degree of temperature, the columns in the table show the weights for every 8 degrees Reaumur, which is quite sufficient: namely, from 24 deg. to 17 deg., from ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 455, September 20, 1884 • Various

... that Saint Andre joined us, having been cast off by the 5th Divisional Staff at Landrecies as a superfluous interpreter. Looking like an ordinary French subaltern with a pince-nez, he was in fact a Protestant pastor from Tours, son of the Vicomte de Saint Andre, very intelligent and "cultured," with a great sense of humour and extremely keen. ...
— The Doings of the Fifteenth Infantry Brigade - August 1914 to March 1915 • Edward Lord Gleichen

... did the humiliation of the landed nobility render it superfluous to conciliate the good-will of the proud and opulent citizens, than the readiest means were sought for reducing them to the level of ordinary subjects. Paris especially, once almost a republic, had of late learned submission and docility.[14] By the change, however, ...
— The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2) • Henry Martyn Baird

... conflicts are more bitter in proportion as their causes are less just. It is the law of nature to fight for bread, for the necessities. This law may seem brutal, but there is an excuse in its very harshness, and it is generally limited to elemental cruelties. Quite different is the battle for the superfluous—for ambition, privilege, inclination, luxury. Never has hunger driven man to such baseness as have envy, avarice, and thirst for pleasure. Egotism grows more maleficent as it becomes more refined. We of these times have seen an increase of hostile feeling among brothers, and ...
— The Simple Life • Charles Wagner

... otherwise what would have been the use of being a Neville-Nugent? Only not to have been one—that would have been discouraging. She delighted in novels, poems, perversions, misrepresentations, and evasions, and had a capacity for smooth, superfluous falsification which made our young man think her sometimes an amusing and sometimes a tedious inventor. But she wasn't dangerous even if you believed her; she wasn't even a warning if you didn't. It was harsh to call her a hypocrite, since you never could have resolved ...
— The Tragic Muse • Henry James


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