re·dun·dant? ?/r??d?nd?nt/ Show Spelled[ri-duhn-duhnt]
adjective
1. characterized by verbosity or unnecessary repetition in expressing ideas; prolix: a redundant style.
2. being in excess; exceeding what is usual or natural: a redundant part.
3. having some unusual or extra part or feature.
4. characterized by superabundance or superfluity: lush, redundant vegetation.
5. Engineering .
a. (of a structural member) not necessary for resisting statically determined stresses.
b. (of a structure) having members designed to resist other than statically determined stresses; hyperstatic.
c. noting a complete truss having additional members for resisting eccentric loads. Compare complete ( def. 8 ) , incomplete ( def. 3 ) .
d. (of a device, circuit, computer system, etc.) having excess or duplicate parts that can continue to perform in the event of malfunction of some of the parts.
6. Linguistics . characterized by redundancy; predictable.
7. Computers . containing more bits or characters than are required, as a parity bit inserted for checking purposes.
8. Chiefly British . removed or laid off from a job.
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Origin:
15951605; < L redundant- (s. of redund?ns ), prp. of redund?re to flow back, overflow, be excessive. See redound, -ant
Related forms
re·dun·dant·ly, adverb
Synonyms
1. verbose, repetitive. See wordy. 2. excessive; useless; superfluous, tautologous.