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extraneous

/ɛkˈstɹeɪ.ni.əs/adjective

extraneous is spelled E-X-T-R-A-N-E-O-U-S: 10 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 37,459th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, extraneous means “Not belonging to, or dependent upon, a thing; without or beyond a thing; foreign” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in extraneous?

Letters10: E-X-T-R-A-N-E-O-U-S
Syllables4 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 37,459th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is extraneous?

Extraneous appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 37,459th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce extraneous?

  • US /ɛkˈstɹeɪ.ni.əs/
  • US /ɪkˈstɹeɪ.ni.əs/
  • Australia /ekˈstɹæɪ.ni.əs/

Extraneous has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-extraneous.ogg, En-au-extraneous.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with extraneous?

5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as extraneous from its last stressed vowel (/eɪniəs/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

What does extraneous mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Not belonging to, or dependent upon, a thing; without or beyond a thing; foreign.

    to separate gold from extraneous matter

  2. 2

    Not essential or intrinsic.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Extraneous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchétranger (not belonging to, or dependent upon, a thing)
Germanfremd, nicht zugehörig (not belonging to, or dependent upon, a thing), überflüssig, unnötig, nicht wesentlich (not essential or intrinsic)
Portugueseestranho (not belonging to, or dependent upon, a thing)
Spanishajeno, foráneo, foraño, forano, no venir al caso, no venir al cuento (not belonging to, or dependent upon, a thing)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does extraneous come from?

From Latin extrāneus (“from without, strange”). Doublet of strange. Cognate with estrange (verb), Spanish extraño.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after extraneous