superfluous
/suˈpɝflu.əs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.00 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
In excess of what is required or sufficient.
Example Sentences
- "With a full rain suit, carrying an umbrella may be superfluous."
- "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."
- "This did not mean that the party was superfluous, however. The concept of an advance guard of the proletariat was a sound one; but it should be a group of active members, not a sovereign body."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: superfluous, superfluus
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /suˈpɝflu.əs/
- British English: /suːˈpɜːflu.əs/
Inflected Forms
more superfluous (comparative)
most superfluous (superlative)