You searched for: “extraneous”
extraneous (adjective), more extraneous, most extraneous
1. Referring to something coming in from the outside: During the soloist’s recital, the audience could hear the extraneous sounds from the church bells down the street!
2. Descriptive of something which is not important or relevant: Mr. Jackson explained to his student, Judy, that there were too many extraneous sentences in her essay which were not related to the topic she had chosen to write about.
3. Etymology: from Latin extraneus, "external, strange"; literally "that which is without" or "outside".
A reference to what is not essential or a part of the situation.
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This entry is located in the following units: extra, extra-, extro-, extr-, exter- (page 2) -ous, -ious, -eous (page 8)
extraneous, intrinsic
extraneous (ik STRAY nee uhs) (adjective)
Not essential or regarding an unnecessary part of something: The balcony scene was extraneous, or irrelevant, to the meaning of the play.

The reporter was able to speed up the process of completing her report by eliminating much of the extraneous comments made by some of the people.

intrinsic (in TRIN zik, in TRIN sik) (adjective)
Descriptive of the essentials of the nature of an object or idea: The intrinsic essence of their friendship could not be described.

Someone once said that creativity is intrinsic to human existence.

After getting rid of all the extraneous paragraphs in the new novel, the editor felt that only the key intrinsic descriptions remained; all of which were strengthening elements in the story line.

This entry is located in the following unit: Confusing Words Clarified: Group E; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. + (page 5)
A unit related to: “extraneous”
xeno-, xen-, -xenic, -xenism, -xenist, -xenous, -xeny
(Greek: foreign, foreigner; alien; different; extraneous; strange, stranger; and by extension, guest)