irrelevance
AmericanEtymology
Origin of irrelevance
1840–50; ir- 2 + relevance ( def. ); see relevant ( def. )
Explanation
Irrelevance represents what is NOT at all important to what’s going on right now. Anything that distracts you from this sentence is clearly an example of irrelevance. The Latin root word for irrelevance is relevare, which means “raising up.” The prefix ir- means “not,” therefore if a situation does not relate to or raise your interest, it’s irrelevant. In a courtroom, lawyers who lose sight of their case argue about irrelevances, and your sister speaks with irrelevance when she wakes you up to talk about rainbows. It’s always best to focus on important things, but irrelevance now and then won’t kill you.
Vocabulary lists containing irrelevance
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
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Grendel
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The Remains of the Day
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A franchise that desperately worked to be relevant seems doomed to irrelevance once more.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Another indicator of the document’s irrelevance is that it was issued by the Board of Peace, an organization that has no authority or power to do anything.
From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2026
On social-media platforms like X, some investors have loudly proclaimed that after years of serving as the dominant cryptocurrency, bitcoin might finally be lurching toward irrelevance.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 4, 2026
Or they retreated, following Macdonald’s advice, into social irrelevance by adopting dead-end pseudo-philosophies like deconstructionism.
From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2026
The shell was interesting and pretty and a worthy plaything; but the vivid phantoms of his day-dream still interposed between him and Piggy, who in this context was an irrelevance.
From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
