10 uses
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Definition
more than is needed, desired, or required
- You see, I am perfectly aware of just how superfluous I am.5.1 - Eternal Soup and Sudden Clarity (52% in)
- Dr. Krokowski greeted the new resident with a kind of jovial, rugged, and reassuring heartiness, as if to imply that in his presence any diffidence was quite superfluous and cheerful mutual trust the only appropriate response.1.3 - In the Restaurant (59% in)
- It wasn't snowing, exactly, but it had been raining heavily for days; ugly, thick fog filled the valley, where thunderstorms raged and rolled in knotty reverberations—absurdly superfluous, really, considering it was so cold that the heat had been turned on in the dining hall.4.9 - Growing Anxiety / Two Grandfathers and a Twilight Boat Ride (1% in)
- And yet that seemed quite as unlikely as her knowing that he had just asked himself, not a minute before, whether he should not have Joachim tell the director that his cold was already better and that he now thought the examination superfluous—a new plan whose advantages had withered beneath her inquisitive smile and that had suddenly become disgustingly boring.4.10 - The Thermometer (72% in)
- So, too, one could observe that as tubular bones developed, with each increase in solid surface material, the inner portion, which had become mechanically superfluous, was transformed step by step into fatty tissue, the marrow.5.7 - Research (70% in)
- "This is where I arrived," he said superfluously.6.4 - An Outburst of Temper / Something Very Embarrassing (95% in)
- It is superfluous for me to emphasize that I feel more than tolerance for Protestantism, that I have the deepest admiration for it as the historical opponent of forces that enslave the conscience.6.8 - A Good Soldier (43% in)
- Or better: the circumstances made preparations superfluous—that was the humiliating part.7.2 - Mynheer Peeperkorn (76% in)
- He knew only one, dreadfully tedious topic of conversation: the ratio pi, that forlorn fraction, which a lesser genius of mental arithmetic named Zacharias Dase had once worked out to two hundred decimal places—a superfluous task, since even at two thousand places he would have had no greater prospect of approaching unattainable accuracy, indeed would not have been one whit closer to it.7.6 - The Great Stupor (48% in)
- And out of simple pride, it appeared, almost superfluously, the glass tipped and knocked once for yes.7.8 - Highly Questionable (30% in)
There are no more uses of "superfluous" in The Magic Mountain.
Typical Usage
(best examples)