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Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday March 28, 2006

superfluous \soo-PER-floo-us\, adjective:
More than is wanted or is sufficient; rendered unnecessary by superabundance; unnecessary; useless; excessive.
-- SUPERFLUOUSLY, adverb
-- SUPERFLUOUSNESS, noun

And it's hard to realize economies of scale without shedding superfluous jobs.
-- "The Health of Valley Hospitals: Merger of Holy Cross, Providence Made Sense but Still Caused Pain", Los Angeles Times, July 27, 1999

Power Grubs make a dead skunk smell like a rose by comparison. The 'Not for human consumption' warning is superfluous.
-- "Smelly grub a smash", Toronto Star, May 1, 1999

Everything superfluous is more noticeable in him [Hemmingway] than in other writers.
-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "Gabriel Garcia Marquez Meets Ernest Hemingway", New York Times, July 26, 1981

An authority which makes all further argument or illustration superfluous.
-- E. Everett

Superfluous comes ultimately from the Latin superfluus, from superfluo, superfluere, to overflow, from super-, over, above + fluo, fluere, to flow.

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for superfluous

 

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