Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Exceeding what is necessary or natural; superfluous.
  • adjective Needlessly wordy or repetitive in expression.
  • adjective Of or relating to linguistic redundancy.
  • adjective Chiefly British Dismissed or laid off from work, as for being no longer needed.
  • adjective Electronics Of or involving redundancy in electronic equipment.
  • adjective Of or involving redundancy in the transmission of messages.
  • adjective Genetics Degenerate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Rolling or flowing back, as a wave or surge.
  • Superfluous; exceeding what is natural or necessary; superabundant; exuberant.
  • Using or containing more words or images than are necessary or useful: as, a redundant style.
  • Noting a condition of the wing membrane in bats when it extends well down on the leg, and on the arm embraces the thumb beyond the first phalanx.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Exceeding what is natural or necessary; superabundant; exuberant.
  • adjective Using more worrds or images than are necessary or useful; pleonastic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Superfluous; exceeding what is necessary.
  • adjective writing Repetitive or needlessly wordy.
  • adjective chiefly UK Dismissed from employment because no longer needed.
  • adjective Duplicating or able to duplicate the function of another component of a system, providing back-up in the event the other component fails.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective repetition of same sense in different words
  • adjective more than is needed, desired, or required

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin redundāns, redundant-, present participle of redundāre, to overflow : re-, red-, re- + undāre, to surge (from unda, wave; see wed- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin redundans, present participle of redundare ("to overflow, redound"), from red- ("again, back") + undo ("to surge, flood"), from unda ("a wave").

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Examples

  • The term redundant design means that when one system fails, another carries the load.

    Think Progress » 9/11 Conspiracy Theory Redux: Malkin Argues That Qana Was An Inside Job 2006

  • The song is assembly line Akon: a reedy, shouty chorus, a glimmering beat, and questionable spelling and diction ( "Na" actually means "now" in Akon's world, thus making the "na" 's in the title redundant).

    Prefix 2008

  • "I don't want to use the word redundant, but we have two Revolutionary political leaders representing Maryland, and you wonder if there were great Marylanders who did anything apart from the Revolution," Cohen said.

    Harriet Tubman vs. John Hanson: Statuary Hall smackdown 2011

  • On the other hand, everyone there will be able to type, and by then technology might have made the ability to sign your name redundant.

    The Handwriting Is on the Wall Theodore Dalrymple 2011

  • Personally, I'd rather the police keep to tormenting criminals than getting trigger-happy with the innocent. p.s. Please don't tell me that "l'eau" makes the preceding word in the title redundant - nay, superfluous and altogether unwanted: a pariah in the great thesaurus of life; an article definitely unwanted.

    buggerthat Diary Entry buggerthat 2009

  • Instantly I expect people to assume I have my facts wrong when I use the word "president" instead of mayor, but let's be clear, the proposal that the Tories have pushed whereby large cities in England would have directly elected mayors with presidential powers which allow them to make councillors almost totally redundant is the last thing that local democracy needs.

    Why do the Tories and Labour think that cities should elect presidents ? Norfolk Blogger 2009

  • There is nothing to say that anyone recently made redundant from a bank would have any more experience of classroom management, planning, laws, issues than a classroom assistant with 10 years experience of a classroom who would be expected to do a one year PGCE.

    Teaching in 6 months ? Idiocy from Labour Norfolk Blogger 2009

  • Instantly I expect people to assume I have my facts wrong when I use the word "president" instead of mayor, but let's be clear, the proposal that the Tories have pushed whereby large cities in England would have directly elected mayors with presidential powers which allow them to make councillors almost totally redundant is the last thing that local democracy needs.

    Archive 2009-02-01 Norfolk Blogger 2009

  • Doing something that makes the corruption-ridden cap-and-trade system redundant is good, and a broad-based consumption tax has a lot to recommend it.

    Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Wherein, To My Great Surprise, I actually Agree with James Hansen 2009

  • The genetic code is called redundant (although I myself do not know whether the code is redundant because I don't know the reason why it evolved, so I cannot call it redundant) meaning that more than one codons can code for a single amino acid.

    A critique on the endosymbiotic theory for the origin of mitochondria 2007

Comments

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  • Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.

    January 25, 2007

  • I agree. I think exactly the same as uselessness' thought. I reckon that tip is very helpful, and useful, and I hope people will understand it and make a good use of the tip itself. Thanks, uselessness, I agree with you. You're right.

    February 8, 2008

  • Man, this page is painful.

    February 8, 2008