irrelevant

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *né

Proto-Indo-European *n̥-

Proto-Italic *n̥-

Latin in-

Latin ir-

English ir-

English relevant

English irrelevant

From ir- + relevant.

Pronunciation

• (weak vowel distinction) IPA^(key): /ɪˈɹɛləvənt/, [ɪˈɹʷɛləvənt]

  • Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):

    (file)

• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /əˈɹɛləvənt/, [əˈɹʷɛləvənt]
• Rhymes: -ɛləvənt
• Hyphenation: ir‧rel‧e‧vant

Adjective

irrelevant (comparative more irrelevant, superlative most irrelevant)

1. Not relevant, as:

   Synonym: (formal) foreign

   His comments were completely irrelevant to the discussion.

   We need to focus on the main topic and ignore irrelevant details.

   The fact that she is his sister is irrelevant to the case.

   2. Not at all related: totally unrelated, wholly unconnected, completely inapplicable.

      Synonyms: unrelated, unassociated, uncorrelated, random, stochastic, alien

   4. Not usefully related: not associated in any way that is important or useful to the context being discussed: not materially applicable; having connections not applicable in the present situation.

      Synonyms: unimportant, immaterial, incidental, inapplicable

   • 2008, Wally Lamb, The Hour I First Believed, Ch.2, at p.35:

     Andy Kirby said that, on her second day in his class, Velvet declared algebra irrelevant to her life and strolled out the door. "Haven't seen her since," he said.

2. (slang, derogatory) No longer famous or popular; washed up.

Antonyms

• relevant

Derived terms

• irrelephant
• irrelevance
• irrelevancy
• irrelevantly

Translations

not related, not applicable, unimportant, not connected

• Arabic: عَرَضِيّ (ʕaraḍiyy)
• Basque: desegoki
• Breton: dizere (br)
• Bulgarian: несъществен (bg) (nesăštestven), неуместен (bg) (neumesten), ирелевантен (bg) (irelevanten), нецелесъобразен (bg) (necelesăobrazen), страничен (bg) (straničen)
• Catalan: irrellevant (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不相干的 (bùxiānggān de), 不切題的 / 不切题的 (bùqiètí de)

• Czech: irelevantní
• Dutch: irrelevant (nl)
• Esperanto: malgrava, neatentinda, nekoncerna, nerilata
• Finnish: irrelevantti, epäolennainen (fi), merkityksetön (fi), yhdentekevä (fi)
• French: non-pertinent
• Galician: irrelevante (gl)
• Georgian: არარელევანტური (ararelevanṭuri)
• German: irrelevant (de), unwesentlich (de)
• Greek: άσχετος (el) (áschetos)
• Hungarian: irreleváns (hu), érdektelen (hu), lényegtelen (hu), mellékes (hu)
• Italian: irrilevante (it)
• Japanese: 無関係 (ja) (mukankei)
• Macedonian: несоо́дветен (nesoódveten), неу́месен (neúmesen)
• Manx: neuventynagh
• Māori: hape
• Polish: nie à propos, nieistotny (pl), niepowiązany (pl), niezwiązany
• Portuguese: irrelevante (pt)
• Romanian: irelevant, neimportant (ro), nerelevant
• Russian: неподходя́щий (ru) (nepodxodjáščij), несуще́ственный (ru) (nesuščéstvennyj), неуме́стный (ru) (neuméstnyj), нева́жный (ru) (nevážnyj)
• Slovak: irelevantný (sk), nepodstatný
• Spanish: irrelevante (es)
• Swedish: irrelevant (sv), ovidkommande (sv)
• Turkish: ilgisiz (tr), alakasız (tr)

Danish

Etymology

From ir- +‎ relevant.

Adjective

irrelevant (neuter irrelevant, plural and definite singular attributive irrelevante)

1. irrelevant

Inflection

Inflection of irrelevant

	positive	comparative	superlative
indefinite common singular	irrelevant	—	—2
indefinite neuter singular	irrelevant	—	—2
plural	irrelevante	—	—2
definite attributive1	irrelevante	—	—

¹ When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite,
the corresponding "indefinite" form is used.
² The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

Synonyms

• uvedkommende

Antonyms

• relevant

Related terms

• irrelevans

References

• “irrelevant” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Etymology

Perhaps borrowed. Equivalent to in- +‎ relevant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪ.reː.ləˈvɑnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ir‧re‧le‧vant
• Rhymes: -ɑnt

Adjective

irrelevant (comparative irrelevanter, superlative irrelevantst)

1. irrelevant

   Antonym: relevant

Declension

Declension of irrelevant
uninflected	irrelevant
inflected	irrelevante
comparative	irrelevanter
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		irrelevant	irrelevanter	het irrelevantst het irrelevantste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	irrelevante	irrelevantere	irrelevantste
	n. sing.	irrelevant	irrelevanter	irrelevantste
	plural	irrelevante	irrelevantere	irrelevantste
definite		irrelevante	irrelevantere	irrelevantste
partitive		irrelevants	irrelevanters	—

Derived terms

• irrelevantie

Further reading

• “irrelevant” in Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal – Officiële Spelling, Nederlandse Taalunie. [the official spelling word list for the Dutch language]

German

Pronunciation

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ant

Adjective

irrelevant (strong nominative masculine singular irrelevanter, not comparable)

1. irrelevant

   Synonyms: unerheblich, unbedeutend, unwichtig, unmaßgeblich, nebensächlich

   Antonyms: bedeutend, maßgeblich, wesentlich, relevant

Declension

Positive forms of irrelevant (uncomparable)

number & gender		singular			plural
		masculine	feminine	neuter
predicative		er ist irrelevant	sie ist irrelevant	es ist irrelevant	sie sind irrelevant
strong declension (without article)	nominative	irrelevanter	irrelevante	irrelevantes	irrelevante
	genitive	irrelevanten	irrelevanter	irrelevanten	irrelevanter
	dative	irrelevantem	irrelevanter	irrelevantem	irrelevanten
	accusative	irrelevanten	irrelevante	irrelevantes	irrelevante
weak declension (with definite article)	nominative	der irrelevante	die irrelevante	das irrelevante	die irrelevanten
	genitive	des irrelevanten	der irrelevanten	des irrelevanten	der irrelevanten
	dative	dem irrelevanten	der irrelevanten	dem irrelevanten	den irrelevanten
	accusative	den irrelevanten	die irrelevante	das irrelevante	die irrelevanten
mixed declension (with indefinite article)	nominative	ein irrelevanter	eine irrelevante	ein irrelevantes	(keine) irrelevanten
	genitive	eines irrelevanten	einer irrelevanten	eines irrelevanten	(keiner) irrelevanten
	dative	einem irrelevanten	einer irrelevanten	einem irrelevanten	(keinen) irrelevanten
	accusative	einen irrelevanten	eine irrelevante	ein irrelevantes	(keine) irrelevanten

Further reading

• “irrelevant” in Duden online
• “irrelevant”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[1] (in German)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From ir- +‎ relevant.

Adjective

irrelevant (neuter singular irrelevant, definite singular and plural irrelevante)

1. irrelevant

Related terms

• irrelevans

References

• “irrelevant” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From ir- +‎ relevant.

Adjective

irrelevant (neuter singular irrelevant, definite singular and plural irrelevante)

1. irrelevant

Related terms

• irrelevans

References

• “irrelevant” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish

Adjective

irrelevant (comparative mer irrelevant, superlative mest irrelevant)

1. irrelevant

   Synonym: ovidkommande

   Antonym: relevant

Declension

Inflection of irrelevant

Indefinite	positive	comparative	superlative1
common singular	irrelevant	mer irrelevant	mest irrelevant
neuter singular	irrelevant	mer irrelevant	mest irrelevant
plural	irrelevanta	mer irrelevanta	mest irrelevanta
masculine plural2	irrelevante	mer irrelevanta	mest irrelevanta
Definite	positive	comparative	superlative
masculine singular3	irrelevante	mer irrelevante	mest irrelevante
all	irrelevanta	mer irrelevanta	mest irrelevanta

¹ The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative.
² Dated or archaic.
³ Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.

Adverb

irrelevant (not comparable)

1. irrelevantly

Further reading

• “irrelevant”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)

Anagrams

• ventilerar