extraneous
adjCA, US, UK /ɛkˈstɹeɪ.ni.əs/ · AU, NZ /ekˈstɹæɪ.ni.əs/
Etymology From Latin extrāneus (“from without, strange”). Doublet of strange. Cognate with estrange (verb), Spanish extraño.
1
Not belonging to, or dependent upon, a thing; without or beyond a thing; foreign.
- to separate gold from extraneous matter
- Extraneous substances were found on my cup of water.
2
Not essential or intrinsic.
- Edward had seen beauty often, and seen it with every possible aid; but never had he seen beauty so perfect, yet so utterly devoid of extraneous assistance.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:
- If the Government believes that part of the railways' salvation is to be found in ridding them of extraneous concerns, it should have had the courage either to close the railway works down as quickly as possible, or to hive them off as an entirely separate concern, [...].1964 May, “News and Comment: Minister hamstrings BR workshops”, in Modern Railways, page 291:
1 more example
- Where workers poured the additional 11-foot-wide strip of foundation, for example, an extraneous column remains, and differences in the finish of the floor can be seen.2026 May 23, Julie Belcove, “Farm Fresh”, in Architectural Digest, volume 83, number 4, page 92:
- Synonyms
- additional, alien, foreign, intrusive, superfluous, extra
- Antonyms
- intraneous
- Derived terms
- extraneously, extraneousness, extraneous variable, nonextraneous, unextraneous