Synonyms for extraneous
- adjective
Most common
superfluous external extrinsic incidental foreign adventitious irrelevant
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Superfluous — not essential or intrinsic
superfluous, external, extrinsic, incidental, extra, accidental, outward, gash, unessential, exterior, adscititious
2. Foreign — not belonging to, or dependent upon, a thing; without or beyond a thing; foreign
foreign, adventitious, additional, alien, intrusive, unconnected, exotic, ascititious, strange dated, outlandish dated
3. Irrelevant
Definitions
- adj. 1
Not belonging to, or dependent upon, a thing; without or beyond a thing; foreign.
to separate gold from extraneous matter
- adj. 2
Not essential or intrinsic.
Related words
- Word family
- extraneousness
Example sentences
- external The vagina meets the external organs at the vulva.
- incidental His criticism only referred to incidental matters.
- superfluous I agree that the feelings are indeed superfluous.
- additional There are additional students to my Spanish class.
- adventitious A rather adventitious source informed me of his past doings.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| extraneous | falling | |
| external | steady | |
| incidental | falling | |
| superfluous | steady | |
| extrinsic | rising | |
| additional | falling |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- gash1
- 5 letters
- extra2, alien3
- 6 letters
- exotic3
- 7 letters
- outside2, foreign2, strange1, outward2
- 8 letters
- external3, exterior4
- 9 letters
- unrelated4, intrusive3, extrinsic3, desultory4
- 10 letters
- additional4, irrelevant4, accidental4, incidental4, outlandish3, orthogonal4, immaterial5
- 11 letters
- superfluous3, unconnected4, impertinent4, unessential, ascititious
- 12 letters
- adventitious, adscititious
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (extra2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- étranger
- Italiano
- estraneo
- Español
- extranjero
- Deutsch
- fremd
- Català
- estranger