Superfluous Meaning
/suːˈpɜːflu.əs/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjIn excess of what is required or sufficient.
Sentence Examples
There was always too much superfluous writing in his essays.
Jim made a superfluous remark.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The editor removed the ____ paragraphs from the article because they added no new information.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I removed all the ____ details from the report to make it more concise and easier for the manager to read.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English superfluous, from Latin superfluus (“superfluous”) + -ous, from superfluō (“overflow”), from super (“above, more than, over”) + fluō (“flow”). Compare mellifluous and fluid, also from Latin. Literally corresponds to overflow, which is from Germanic, rather than Latin.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Then I began to play in timid fashion, venturing only twenty or thirty gulden at a time. Meanwhile, I observed and took notes. It seemed to me that calculation was superfluous, and by no means possessed of the importance which certain other players attached to it, even though they sat with ruled papers in their hands, whereon they set down the coups, calculated the chances, reckoned, staked, and—lost exactly as we more simple mortals did who played without any reckoning at all."
— 1867, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, chapter IV, in The Gambler, translated by C. J. Hogarth^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Gambler_(1867)/IV):
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The editor removed the ____ paragraphs from the article because they added no new information.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I removed all the ____ details from the report to make it more concise and easier for the manager to read.