(click/touch triangles for details)
Definition
not relevant or important to the matter under considerationMore rarely, extraneous can refer to something that does not belong to that in which it is contained (as in "water free of extraneous matter"); or to something coming from an outside source (as in "Extraneous light in the camera spoiled the photograph.")
- She has a tendency to get distracted by extraneous details.
extraneous = not relevant or important to the matter under consideration
- an issue extraneous to the debate
- But to think of anything extraneous was an agonizing effort.Tolstoy, Leo -- Anna Karenina
- "You have to realize, Mr. Gennaro," Arnold said, "that there's a lot of extraneous movement out there."Michael Crichton -- Jurassic Park
- It had crossed her thought like some unsought, extraneous impression.Kate Chopin -- The Awakening
- It was the extra exclamation point that got me. My mother would call it extraneous, overblown, exuberant.Sarah Dessen -- Along for the Ride
- Ender toyed with the idea of telling them how important this battle was to him, but decided it would not help them to have an extraneous concern on their minds.Orson Scott Card -- Ender's Game
- And whatever extraneous influence the tannery may have exercised, the calamities of the land belong to it alone, born of wind and rain and weather, immensities not to be tempered by man or his creations.Kamala Markandaya -- Nectar in a Sieve
- What Mavens and Connectors and Salesmen do to an idea in order to make it contagious is to alter it in such a way that extraneous details are dropped and others are exaggerated so that the message itself comes to acquire a deeper meaning.Malcolm Gladwell -- The Tipping Point
- For six months, Ekman and his collaborator, Wallace Friesen, had been sorting through the footage, cutting extraneous scenes, focusing just on close-ups of the faces of the tribesmen in order to compare the facial expressions of the two groups.Malcolm Gladwell -- Blink
- If each, I told myself, could but be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the unjust delivered from the aspirations might go his way, and remorse of his more upright twin; and the just could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path, doing the good things in which he found his pleasure, and no longer exposed to disgrace and penitence by the hands of this extraneous evil.Robert Louis Stevenson -- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- You clog the action by introducing so much extraneous material.London, Jack -- Martin Eden
- I need you, Eragon and Arya, to help the dwarves collapse extraneous tunnels.Christopher Paolini -- Eragon
- After three days of the headmistress depending on us for everything, we had suddenly become extraneous.Ransom Riggs -- Hollow City
- Extraneous flashes of Mr. Gray.Don DeLillo -- White Noise
- Double time with no one orchestrating any extraneous moves.Robert Ludlum -- The Bourne Supremacy
- I already took the liberty of suggesting that the development of Freemasonry from guilds of respectable manual laborers is historically extraneous.Thomas Mann -- The Magic Mountain
- "An extraneous element is being introduced into the case," said the Magistrate.E.M. Forster -- A Passage to India
- But to think of anything extraneous was an agonizing effort.Leo Tolstoy -- Anna Karenina
- So extraneous, so unnecessary.Anne Tayler -- A Spool of Blue Thread
extraneous = not relevant or important to the matter under consideration
extraneous = not relevant or important to the matter under consideration
extraneous = not relevant (unneeded)
extraneous = not relevant to the matter under consideration
extraneous = unimportant to the matter under consideration
extraneous = not relevant or important to the matter under consideration
extraneous = not relevant or important to the matter under consideration
extraneous = not belonging to that in which it is contained
Search for other examples by interest
Interest — Source
General — Google News®General — Time® Magazine
General — Wikipedia®
Architecture — Google® books - Architecture
Business — Bloomberg®
Business — The Economist®
Classic Literature — Google® books - Classical Literature
Engineering — Google® books - Engineering
Engineering — Popular Mechanics®
Engineering — Discover Magazine®
Fine Arts & Music — Google® books - Art
History — Google® books - History
Human Behavior — Google® books - Psychology
Human Behavior — Psychology Today®
Law — FindLaw®
Law — Google® books - Law
Logic & Reasoning — Google® books - Reasoning
Medicine — Web MD®
Medicine — Google® books - Medicine
Nature & Ecology — National Geographic®
Nature & Ecology — Google® books - Nature
Personal Finance — Kiplinger® (Personal Finance)
Philosophy — Google® books - Philosophy
Public Policy & Politics — Newsweek®
Public Policy & Politics — Real Clear Politics®
Public Policy & Politics — Google® books - Politics
Religion & Spirtuality — Google® books - Religion
Religion - Christianity — Bible Gateway®
Religion - Christianity — Google® books - Christianity
Science — Popular Science®
Science — Scientific American®
Science — Google® books - Science
Sports — Sports Illustrated®