superfluous
part of speech
adjective (superfluous)
meaning for a pupil
1) Superfluous means more than is needed, extra and not necessary: "Cut the superfluous words from your sentence." tree →
2) (formal) Superfluous can mean not wanted or useful, so a person may feel superfluous when they are not needed. tree →
sense in the lessons
In English lessons, editing writing means removing superfluous words and repetition. In formal exam language it means unnecessary. In maths word problems, some information may be superfluous: you do not need it to solve the problem. Phrases: "superfluous detail", "superfluous information", "feel superfluous".
examples
- Delete any superfluous words from your story. tree →
- The extra decorations were superfluous. tree →
- The problem had superfluous information about the colour of the bus. tree →
- Packing three umbrellas seems superfluous. tree →
- With two helpers already, I felt superfluous. tree →
- His long speech had a lot of superfluous detail. tree →
- Shoes inside a swimming pool are superfluous. tree →
- [457] A few lines are here omitted as being superfluous. tree →
note
Pronounced "soo-PER-floo-us" (stress on PER). Formal word; simpler: unnecessary, extra. In maths, spotting superfluous numbers is a skill: not every number in a problem must be used.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «superfluous» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.