SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
superfluous
adjective
More than is needed or serving no useful purpose.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
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More than necessary
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topSuperfluous means beyond what is needed. Spare may be deliberately useful as a reserve; pointless makes the stronger claim of no useful purpose.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See superfluous in use
Removing superfluous phrases made the instructions clearer.
The festival's print shop offered to produce direction signs for a nominal charge. Even so, the planning group spent an inordinate amount of time debating the color of one arrow. Priya returned attention to the wording. Several lines were superfluous because they repeated directions already shown by the map, and removing them made the sign easier to scan.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license