adjective
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exceeding what is sufficient or required
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not necessary or relevant; uncalled-for
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obsolete extravagant in expenditure or oversupplied with possessions
Other Word Forms
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
Explanation
When something is so unnecessary that it could easily be done away with, like a fifth wheel on a car or a fifth person on a double date, call it superfluous. Superfluous (soo-PER-floo-uhs) means "more than required." Use it when pointing out something that could be removed without detracting from the quality of something: "For a climb over a glacier, the very thickest shoes are absolutely necessary; beyond these, all else seems superfluous to me," wrote the adventurer Charles Stoddard in 1899. The word comes from Latin and literally means "overflowing": super ("over") + fluere ("to flow"). So you can think of a superfluous addition as flowing over the boundaries of what's needed.
Vocabulary lists containing superfluous
100 Top "SAT" Words
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Grade 11, List 1
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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.
Another wait ensued: Superfluous as it seemed, the coroner conducted an autopsy.
From Washington Post • Jun. 3, 2018
Superfluous, perhaps, but still necessary: Mr. Obama has spoken more than a dozen times after mass shootings.
From New York Times • Jul. 18, 2016
Benjamin Franklin once quipped that the Vice President should be addressed as “your Superfluous Excellency.”
From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2016
The thinking here is largely consequentialist: Superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering are inherently wasteful.
From Slate • Nov. 13, 2012
But there were rocks would not relent at this: Lo, for their own hearts, they rend His; Their deadly hate liues still, and hath A wild reserve of wanton wrath; Superfluous spear!
From The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume I (of 2) by Crashaw, Richard
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.
