Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use superfluous in a sentence

15 example sentences · adjective

Superfluous means in excess of what is required or sufficient. Example: “With a full rain suit, carrying an umbrella may be superfluous.”

Examples of superfluous by meaning

adjectiveIn excess of what is required or sufficient.

  • With a full rain suit, carrying an umbrella may be superfluous.
  • This did not mean that the party was superfluous, however.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon...

More sentences with superfluous

  • The clues were close to Ximenean standards, with just the occasional superfluous "to" or "a".2013, T. Campbell, On Crosswords: Thoughts, Studies, Facts and Snark About a 100-Year-Old Pastime, page 156. From the entry araucarian
  • It is perhaps superfluous to belabor the extent, cost and unpunishment of antitrust crime.1973, Consent Decree Bills: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Monopolies and Commercial Law ..., 93-1, on H.R. 9203, H.R. 9947, and S.…. From the entry unpunishment
  • There was a charged moment where words seemed superfluous.2023 October 19, Haliya May, Savage Devotion, Haliya May. From the entry charged
  • As the entrances near the caveas provide access to the theatres, such an additional arrangement seems to have been superfluous.2005, Orhan Bingöl, translated by Ayşe Çalık Ross, Theatron: Magnesia on the Meander, Homer Kitabevi, →ISBN, page 64. From the entry cavea
  • We cited a goodly number of synonyms, some of them may seem superfluous, but I thought of linguists interested in phytonymy.1993, J. A. J. Verheijen, Glossary of Taxonomic-Indonesian Plant Names, page 4. From the entry phytonymy
  • A neologism is not superfluous if it gives us the notion of a new science: that of the degrees of language.1975, Roland Barthes, Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes. From the entry bathmology
  • The wonderful Hugonian catalogue of names -- so effective in poetry, so superfluous in prose -- are capitally treated.1931, . George Saintsbury, chapter V, in A Consideration of Thackeray. From the entry Hugonian
  • Trim off superfluous fat, rub over the outside of the meat with salt and flour, and set it upon the mirepoix.1910, American Cookery, volume 14. From the entry mirepoix
  • Luckily, though, the sumptuous, eerie look and mood of the movie make it possible to ignore this dispiriting and superfluous adherence to convention.2005 July 15, A. O. Scott, “Looking for the Candy, Finding a Back Story”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry dispiriting
  • They were conscious of Australia as once a convict colony and still a retreat for a proletariat over-proletaneous since machinery was making so many men superfluous in industry.2021, Miles Franklin, All That Swagger. From the entry proletaneous
  • The druids had left their menhirs and poquelayes, the Romans their houghes, although raised fortifications seemed superfluous on the inland sites where they were to be found.1991, Lawrence Norfolk, Lemprière's Dictionary, Grove Press, published 1999, page 21. From the entry poquelaye
  • His separate existence, indeed, is now superfluous: the conflict over, his better qualities are incorporated in the lover who survives, the more mature stage of the supercharacter Palamon-Arcite-Emetreus-Lygurge.1988, Harold Bloom, Geoffrey Chaucer's The knight's tale, page 53. From the entry supercharacter
  • The cloth was singed to remove superfluous fluff by being passed over heated copper plates and then boiled in bleaching keirs with lime or caustic soda.1975, Owen Ashmore, The Industrial Archaeology of Stockport, page 31. From the entry keir

Meaning of superfluous

  1. adjective In excess of what is required or sufficient.

Full definition of superfluous

Questions about superfluous in a sentence

How do you use superfluous in a sentence?
Superfluous is used as an adjective. For example: “With a full rain suit, carrying an umbrella may be superfluous.”
What is a short sentence with superfluous?
“There was a charged moment where words seemed superfluous.”
What does superfluous mean?
Superfluous means in excess of what is required or sufficient.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: superfluous (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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