extraneous.

Not belonging to or needed for the matter under consideration.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• extraneous detail
• extraneous variable

On the page

The editor removed extraneous biographical detail that did not support the essay’s argument.

The experiment controlled extraneous variables that might otherwise affect the measurements.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Comparative more extraneous; superlative most extraneous where gradation is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: analysis, comparison, evaluation. Disciplines: argumentation, textual analysis. Commonness: moderately common.