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Supernumerary vs Redundant - What's the difference?

supernumerary | redundant |

As adjectives the difference between supernumerary and redundant

is that supernumerary is extra; beyond the standard or prescribed amount or number while redundant is superfluous; exceeding what is necessary.

As a noun supernumerary

is a civil designation for somebody who works in a group, association or public office, without forming part of the regular staff; those distinguished from numerary (for example, supernumerary judges are those who help the regular judges when there is a surplus amount of work).

supernumerary

English

Noun

(supernumeraries)
  • A civil designation for somebody who works in a group, association or public office, without forming part of the regular staff; those distinguished from numerary. (For example, supernumerary judges are those who help the regular judges when there is a surplus amount of work.)
  • An extra or walk-on in a film or play; spear-carrier.
  • * 1992', Sarah Anne Sloane, '''''Supernumeraries at bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) nests (page 50)
  • Adjective

    (-)
  • Extra; beyond the standard or prescribed amount or number.
  • * 1948': Aldous Huxley, ''Ape and Essence'', page 74: '''1949''' “Chatto & Windus” edition]; [http://books.google.co.uk/books?lr=&ei=-kZSSb6rBIjcygTtre2LAg&id=mYorAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Ape+and+Essence%22+supernumerary&q=supernumerary&pgis=1#search_anchor ' 1972 “Harper & Row” edition
  • Over close-ups of little faces with hare lips, little trunks with stumps instead of legs and arms, little hands with clusters of supernumerary fingers, little bodies adorned with a double row of nipples, we hear the voice of the Narrator.
  • Greater in number than.
  • Beyond what is necessary.
  • redundant

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Superfluous; exceeding what is necessary.
  • Repetitive or needlessly wordy.
  • (chiefly, British) Dismissed from employment because no longer needed; as in "rendered redundant".
  • Duplicating or able to duplicate the function of another component of a system, providing back-up in the event the other component fails.
  • * 2013 , Tom Denton, Automobile Electrical and Electronic Systems , page 142:
  • The two lines are mainly used for redundant and therefore fault-tolerant message transmission, but they can also transmit different messages.

    Antonyms

    * non-redundant