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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Superfluous \Su*per"flu*ous\, adjective [L. superfluus overflowing; super over, above + fluere to flow. See {Super-}, and {Fluent}.] More than is wanted or is sufficient; rendered unnecessary by superabundance; unnecessary; useless; excessive; as, a superfluous price. --Shak.
An authority which makes all further argument or illustration superfluous. --E. Everett.
{Superfluous interval} (Mus.), an interval that exceeds a major or perfect interval by a semitone.
Syn: Unnecessary; useless; exuberant; excessive; redundant; needless. -- {Su*per"flu*ous*ly}, adverb -- {Su*per"flu*ous*ness}, noun
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
superfluous
adjective
1: serving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being; "otiose lines in a play"; "advice is wasted words" [syn: {otiose}, {pointless}, {wasted}]
2: more than is needed, desired, or required; "trying to lose excess weight"; "found some extra change lying on the dresser"; "yet another book on heraldry might be thought redundant"; "skills made redundant by technological advance"; "sleeping in the spare room"; "supernumerary ornamentation"; "it was supererogatory of her to gloat"; "delete superfluous (or unnecessary) words"; "extra ribs as well as other supernumerary internal parts"; "surplus cheese distributed to the needy" [syn: {excess}, {extra}, {redundant}, {spare}, {supererogatory}, {supernumerary}, {surplus}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
73 Moby Thesaurus words for "superfluous": accessory, accidental, additional, adscititious, adventitious, aimless, appurtenant, ascititious, auxiliary, casual, circumstantial, collateral, contingent, de trop, dispensable, excess, excessive, expendable, expletive, extra, feckless, fortuitous, gratuitous, impotent, in excess, incidental, ineffective, ineffectual, inessential, left, leftover, meaningless, needless, net, no go, nonessential, odd, of no use, outstanding, over, pleonastic, pointless, prolix, purposeless, redundant, remaining, remanent, secondary, spare, subsidiary, superabundant, superadded, supererogatory, supernumerary, supervenient, supplemental, supplementary, surplus, surviving, tautologic, tautologous, to spare, unasked, unavailing, uncalled-for, unconsumed, unessential, unnecessary, unneeded, unused, unwanted, useless, verbose
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