What does extraneous mean?
Word: Extraneous
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Extraneous means having nothing to do with the subject or situation in hand.
Synonyms: unrelated
How do you spell extraneous?
Syllables: ex - tra - ne - ous
Tricky part: The ending is -eous, with an e before the ou. Extranious is the usual slip.
Watch out for: extranious, extraneus
Memory tip: Say it slowly and you hear 'nee' near the end. That sound is written with a plain e.
Extraneous in a sentence
Example 1: Delete any extraneous words before you submit your summary.
Example 2: The new microphone cuts out extraneous noise from the street.
Example 3: Stick to the science; your opinion of the laboratory is extraneous.
Fun Fact
Its Latin source meant from outside. Worn down over centuries in French, the same Latin word became the everyday English word strange.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
extranneous
a) x
b) t
c) n
d) s
Show answer
c) n. Just one n stands between the a and the vowels at the end.
Mingle-Mangle
Unscramble the jumbled word in the sentence and choose the correct word:
Please cut the snareueoxt details from your history project.
a) extravagant
b) extraneous
c) spontaneous
d) outrageous
Show answer
b) extraneous. An x but no g or p: only one option survives that test.
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word extraneous as used in the sentence:
The editor removed every extraneous remark from the long report.
a) relevant
b) needless
c) unnecessary
d) superfluous
Show answer
a) relevant. A relevant remark belongs in the report, so the editor would have kept it.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one of these words is spelt correctly. Choose its meaning:
1. consize 2. synopsys 3. coherant 4. extraneous
a) brief and clearly expressed
b) a short summary of a book or film
c) logical and consistent
d) better left out of the discussion
Show answer
d) better left out of the discussion. Concise has a c in place of the z, coherent ends in ent and synopsis ends in is.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. In a maths problem about a train's speed, what detail is extraneous?
a) the distance it covers
b) the time it takes
c) the speed it keeps
d) the colour of the engine
Show answer
d) the colour of the engine
2. An examiner writes 'extraneous material' beside a paragraph. What should the student do next time?
a) use a different colour of pen
b) stick to what the question asks
c) add more on the same side topic
d) write the paragraph out twice
Show answer
b) stick to what the question asks
