Definitions

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

  • adjective Not constituting an essential or vital element or part.
  • adjective Unrelated to the topic or matter at hand. synonym: irrelevant.
  • adjective Coming from the outside.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not belonging or proper to a thing; not intrinsic or essential, though attached; foreign: as, to separate gold from extraneous matter; extraneous ornaments or observances.
  • Synonyms See exterior.
  • In music, not belonging to a standard scale or key; chromatic.

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

  • adjective Not belonging to, or dependent upon, a thing; without or beyond a thing; not essential or intrinsic; foreign.

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

  • adjective Not belonging to, or dependent upon, a thing; without or beyond a thing; foreign
  • adjective Not essential or intrinsic

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

  • adjective not pertinent to the matter under consideration
  • adjective coming from the outside
  • adjective not belonging to that in which it is contained; introduced from an outside source
  • adjective not essential

Etymologies

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

[From Latin extrāneus, from extrā, outside; see extra–.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin extrāneus ("from without, strange")

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