| / English Dictionary |
IRRELEVANT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having no bearing on or connection with the subject at issue
Example:
irrelevant allegations
Classified under:
Similar:
digressive; tangential (of superficial relevance if any)
extraneous; immaterial; impertinent; orthogonal (not pertinent to the matter under consideration)
inapplicable; unsuitable (not capable of being applied)
moot (of no legal significance (as having been previously decided))
Antonym:
relevant (having a bearing on or connection with the subject at issue)
Derivation:
irrelevance; irrelevancy (the lack of a relation of something to the matter at hand)
Context examples:
What was vital was overlaid and hidden by what was irrelevant.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“You may remember my seemingly irrelevant question as to this clerical gentleman’s left ear. You did not answer it.”
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Another brain region, the junction area between temporal and parietal cortex that has been related to the shielding of thoughts against irrelevant information, is less strongly connected to the rest of the brain network.
(Smart People Have Better Connected Brains, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Here are the Daily Gazette extracts of the last fortnight. ‘Lady with a black boa at Prince’s Skating Club’—that we may pass. ‘Surely Jimmy will not break his mother’s heart’—that appears to be irrelevant. ‘If the lady who fainted on Brixton bus’—she does not interest me. ‘Every day my heart longs—’ Bleat, Watson—unmitigated bleat!
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She hinted in a murmur that the surname of the balancing girl was Baker. (I've heard it said that Daisy's murmur was only to make people lean toward her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no less charming.)
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
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