adjective
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exceeding what is sufficient or required
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not necessary or relevant; uncalled-for
-
obsolete extravagant in expenditure or oversupplied with possessions
Other Word Forms
- superfluously adverb
- superfluousness noun
- unsuperfluous adjective
- unsuperfluously adverb
- unsuperfluousness noun
Etymology
Origin of superfluous
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin superfluus, from super- super- + flu- (stem of fluere “to flow”) + -us -ous
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.
Once again, artificial intelligence was at the center of the selloff, amid worries that software would be made superfluous by Anthropic’s Claude applications.
From Barron's
After a century’s worth of Dracula pictures, the exposition seems a bit superfluous, and Mr. Waltz, a two-time Oscar winner, can’t do much with his dialogue, which sounds like guidance from “Vampire Stalking for Dummies.”
Italians mastered how to create a food culture built around comfort and family without being superfluous.
From Salon
They flesh out the narrative just slightly enough not to feel entirely superfluous.
From Salon
The recordings were just as funny and weird and interesting as I remembered them; they didn’t seem dated, they didn’t seem superfluous, they weren’t something I was going to grow out of.
From Salon
Definitions 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.
